Chamonix Snow Report: 27th February 2005
Things are changing a little here. After the past two days of sunny but cold weather the cloud is moving in and it's just started snowing lightly in Chamonix this evening. We had –6ºc at the house this morning, now it's –2 ºc and we still have 62cm of snow in our garden.
Because of the fine weather yesterday we went on another tour into the Berard Valley; this time we took the slightly longer route to the Breche de L'Aiguille de Berard. This one takes you into the valley at a higher point, but consequently it involves more hiking. The initial walk up from the top of the Floria draglift was quite busy, with a lot of people attempting it for their first time (this apparently encouraged a guide leading another group to give one of our friends helpful tips on how to walk – apparently it is not as simple as putting one foot in front of another!). The cold weather meant that the Crochues–Berard traverse was a little icy yesterday, although it wasn't too difficult even with the avalanche debris that has appeared in the last two days. If you do this traverse too late in the day there's a risk of being avalanched. The hike up to the Breche was hot and in full sun for almost all the climb. The views are stupendous here and the ride down the Berard Valley was a little better than two days ago as we managed to find some less-tracked sections with good snow. It was a little crusty and slabby at the top but this was more than compensated for by the light powdery stuff we found in some of the shadier spots. The valley has been quite well tracked now but the snow is still in good shape, and definitely worth the hike as most of the off-piste snow within the ski areas has become hard packed.
This afternoon we went up to Grands Montets just to ride around the pistes. We tried the boarder cross run just off the Tabe chair. There was a closed sign up at the start but others were riding it so we did too. It's improved recently as more rollers and jumps have been added, but the overcast sky and flat light made it difficult to spot the jumps and landings (causing me to miss one completely). Later there were barriers over the jumps so I think it really was meant to be closed!
The Combes piste off the Herse chair was smooth and hard, making it fast but a bit tricky to hold an edge on. The chair up there was surprisingly cold too. I noticed that the lower section of the Pylones run has been marked with poles since my last visit to Grands Montets. It has a fair smattering of yellow and black poles warning of the rocks poking out between the evil-looking moguls, so I decided to leave that run until some fresh snow arrives. Bochard wasn't bad although like most of the pistes now it was very hard (just this side of icy) but it is well groomed, smooth and free of moguls. Another good thing about today was that crowds weren't a problem and queues were small. The busiest run, as is to be expected because everyone uses it to get home, was Pierre a Ric but even that wasn't too bad when we went down at around 4pm. It was showing its dark side with patches of ice that looked like they could crack kneecaps! The worst ones were below the snow cannons on the long straight mid-section just after the switch back. Luckily, the hard stuff was covered with a thin layer of soft snow and it was just about enough to get an edge in. I have a funny feeling that these conditions, whilst not being great for boarders, may be more fun for skiers given how fast some were flying down Pierre a Ric!
Piste Maps for Chamonix (pdf format), Les Houches (jpg format), Cross-country skiing (pdf format), and Mountain-bike trails (pdf format)
Current status for opening of Pistes & Lifts
Chamonix Webcam Index
Additional snow and weather information provided, with thanks, by meteo.chamonix.com and the Tourist Office
Stats
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Level 2
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0
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Total Pistes: 80
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Alt. Resort: 2000
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Alt. Summit: 3000
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Alt. Last Snow: 1042
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High Temp.: -2
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Alt. High Temp.: 1042
