Chamonix Snow Report: 27th January 2014

Lorne hit the Pentes de L'Hotel on Brevent to get in a few cliff drops whilst the crowds were looking at Flegere...
"Snow: 30-40cm powder; still soft where tracked, excellent where untouched.
Hotel Face off the top bin first.  We took the entire track across before dropping in to find the snow pretty tracked and choppy but still soft and skiable with a couple of small drops near the bottom.
We spent the rest of the morning lapping the Cornu ridge.  Starting down the ridge to skier’s-left of the piste we continued about two-thirds of the way along to it befoer dropping in left on a slope of mellower angle than some of the earlier ones, since this area is quite avalanche-prone and the steeper lines still need to fill in a little.  We got fresh tracks into one of the couloirs we know from past winters, with a slightly sketchy entrance but lovely powder inside, then a nice looking drop which we hit to the skier’s-left."
Read more on Lornecameron.com

Still up on the Brevent, Joel Evans fancied giving the E.N.S.A & Bellim Couloirs a go whilst the conditions were still favourable...
"Getting a 9am bubble at Brevent I was at top of Brevent about 9:30 and headed skiers left from the piste following the obvious ridge, staying well away from the cornices! The down climb was fine and as I got down I saw a guy from Evo2 setting up a belay to lower his clients over the drop.
It is possible to ski into this couloir when there is good snow but I heard there was a rappel needed to get over the first 5m drop, then a small down climb before you can safely put your skis on...Skis on and I was looking down hundreds of meters of fresh knee deep untracked snow!"
Read more on Joelevanschamonix.wordpress.com

Chamonet always recommend that you take a mountain guide when heading off-piste.

Ellie heading back up to Brevent & Flegere on Sunday to check out the conditions on piste...

"The pistes were bit mogully and unpisted in places but the top of Brevent had sugary powder on the sides of the pistes that made riding more fun. The choice came down to hard packed pistes or mogully mine-fields,.. not fun on a board in a white out!"