A group of skiers are standing in the snow

A person wearing a red jacket with the letter m on it

A snowy mountain range with a small town in the distance

A snowy mountain range with a blue sky in the background

The sun is shining brightly over the snowy mountains

Chamonix Snow Report: 26th January 2010

featured in Snow report Author Kieran Sharp, Updated 24 October 2014

Some mixed weather has been passing through the valley the past few days a little bit of snow has fallen but the big dump that we were hoping for kind of only just skimmed the valley, but more snow possibilities are arriving as we speak, and there are still pockets of powder to explore.

Overall we have been doing pretty well this season as we haven't been more than a few days without a fresh dump of snow since the lifts opened, and some of us have been finding ourselves a little complacent when we get to the fourth day without fresh snow so we do have to remind ourselves that it snowed fairly recently. Once the areas just off the piste have had all their fresh snow eaten up it's a good time to look a little further a field in to the backcountry, touring or getting on to the glacier (always with proper equipment of course.) Although the past couple of days with white out conditions have made this impossible there was a nice sunny day before the weather came in so I took the advantage of this little clear patch and headed back to the Pas De Chevre, one of Chamoni'x legendary off-piste routes!

We got up with the intent of heading over toward the Couloir Rectilini to ride the amazing remote steep corridor of loveliness, with some epic views of the Chamonix valley, however as we made our way over to the entrance to this route we found quit a few tracks heading in the same direction, and having done this route before when there has been no snow in the couloir we decided to head back over to the direction of the Pas De Chevre where there was still the possibility of fresh snow!

The rectilini is an amazing run but after a dozen people have been down it, the route can change into a steep mogul run or a sheet of ice depending on the snow conditions, after the snow that is currently falling, settles I will be heading in this direction! We headed the furthest right on the Pas De Chevre and although there where quit a few lines down this route, and as the route is so wide, we still found a little stash of snow for us to play in! the powder was amazing, not bottomless fluffy stuff but still clean and settled nice snow to blast through! The run starts of narrower at the top and there are a few rocks to watch out for on the way down the initial part of this route but the further you descend the less steep the run becomes and wider so you can really open up and get some high speed but safer slashes while you ride with amazing views as you go. There are cliffs at the bottom of this route and only a few safe exit points, so once at the flatter section of this route you should start to head left following some traversing lines which normally head down to a couloir which exits on to the Mer De Glace. Always remember that these routes should be attempted only with the assistance of a qualified Mountain Guide and with proper equipment including avalanche transceivers, probes an shovels.

Once on the Mer De Glace we traversed across on to the footpath which leads up to a cat track where we decended back in to Planards and then Chamonix. Stoked after our days riding as usual we headed for a nice bit of Apres ski, heading to Bar'd Up for some of the best Apres ski deals in town!

Check out what to do around town once the lifts have closed with our Apres Ski Report - a weekly round up of what's hot and where to party in Chamonix!