Chamonix Snow Report: 28th January 2005
The last two days' weather has again been dominated by strong northeasterly winds at higher altitudes and very low temperatures, with no fresh snow since the last report. The snow depth in our garden has dropped slightly to 70cm. I think this is probably the snow compressing under its own weight rather than melting as it's been very cold down in town. This morning our thermometer read –11°c, slighty less cold than yesterday morning's –16°c. This lead me to believe, mistakenly, that today would be warmer at Le Tour than yesterday, but I was wrong. The wind seemed to be stronger, making it feel so much colder on the Autannes Chairlift than yesterday. Wrap up warm for this one. Once off the chairlift things were better, especially in the sun, which shone all day with only a few small clouds floating around.
The wind at Le Tour has affected the snow off piste quite badly; it is very ridged and crusty, and the soft powder of a few days ago has mostly been destroyed. It was too easy to make the mistake of letting my board's nose drop below the crust; once this happened the nose went under and I went over the top. The wind has also created dangerous off-piste conditions with an avalanche being triggered yesterday by a single skier very close to the bottom of the Aiguillette drag lift. You can see the avalance clearly from Charamillon section. Yesterday there was a lot of activity by piste security on the mountain at Le Tour; we noticed them using dogs in one of the gullies that we had been riding in a few weeks ago (this may have been a training exercise but it certainly makes you think more carefully about your decisions when you head off piste).
The snow at the back of Le Tour is in better condition than at the front, especially in some of the wooded sections where it seems to have escaped the effects of the wind. From the top of the Tete de Balme we traversed a little to the skier's right and followed the lift line down. This run under the Tete de Balme lift is on the lift map as the black run, Emosson. The piste isn't open and therefore hasn't been marked with poles. However, it's fairly easy to follow so long as you keep the chairlift in sight. From the traverse we could see into some of the back bowls. One had avalanched in a very big way: about half the slope had slid. These bowls are talked about as being the most dangerous area in the valley for avalanches. The snow in the trees was light and fluffy even though it had already been well tracked we managed to find a few sections that were fairly untouched. The lower section was more tracked and was actually turning into a bit of a mogul field. If you stray too far skier's right from Emosson, you have to take care not to get carried away and go right past the bottom of the Tete de Balme chair, otherwise it's a bit of a hike back up, or an off-piste ride all the way down to Vallorcine. So,we traversed skier's left back onto the lower part of Belle Place red run to connect with the chairlift.
The snowfall of last week has obviously improved things here beyond recognition: there are no bare patches or rocks sticking through that I could find on any of the pistes. The snow on the piste was pretty good today, although the wind has created a few icy patches where the lose stuff has been blown away.
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 4
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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.: -8
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Alt. High Temp.: 1042
