Chamonix Snow Report: 28th January 2012

We took the Autannes chair lift up eagerly eyeballing the terrain to either side and headed right at the top. There is a new red piste cut out here this year – Chatelet – that takes you off skiers' left as you head back down to mid station. I say “piste”, but it’s actually more of a cat track and isn’t particularly interesting in itself, but it does take you to some interesting places that previously required a very long traverse to get to. As a boarder, I always found that I ended up dropping down too low too soon and having to rejoin the piste, missing out on some of the good stuff. However, with the help of this little cut through, we traversed that whole side of the area with minimal effort until we hit the boundary fence where you need to stop and take stock.

Getting carried away at this point and you could find yourself in all sorts of trouble as you’re perched above the cliffs and gullies that drop down to the Vormaine beginner slopes below. To go any further in this direction you really need to know what you’re doing and it’s certainly not a spot to go following tracks willy nilly as it is also very prone to avalanche. We played it safe and scooted around the ridge for a way before dropping off to the right and getting some semi fresh lines down past the restaurant at mid station. The snow just off the ridge was lovely; even though it had mostly been tracked out (you gotta be up and out early in Chamonix if you want to get first tracks down anything!), there were still some fresh lines to be had before we dropped back onto the Caisets red run that takes you all the way back to the car park. The snow was noticeably heavier and choppier as soon as you dropped below the restaurant, but still fun and worthy of a few of laps.

I’ve been at Le Tour quite a bit in the last couple of weeks and I still can’t get over how quiet it has been (I love January!). The pistes have been beautifully smooth and the snow is sooooooo fast that you can really let rip as there’s hardly anyone else around. Next we took the cat track across and went to check out the Esserts run that takes you over the back and through the pine forests to the Tete de Balme chairlift (a.k.a. The Coldest Chairlift in the World). As expected, the snow was harder packed on this side but I didn’t come across any of the icy bits that can sometimes catch you out on this run. The chairlift lived up to character though, and despite the fact that there wasn’t a breath of wind anywhere else in the area, as always, there was still a howling gale on the last third of the chair. However, when we headed back down the same side, this time on the Belle Place red, this wind, instead of stripping the snow off the piste was actually keeping the top section covered with a real nice powdery topping. I don’t like this run particularly, I find it’s on a real funny camber and often pretty icy, but on Thursday it was so lovely and grippy that you could properly hoon it down.

After such a stunning day on Thurdsay, Friday was a bit of a disappointment as the clouds closed in again and the visibility went. The clouds didn’t even have the decency to deposit the little dusting of snow that was promised – just flattened out the light and spoilt the views! However, last night, the snow did come and there were some pretty big flakes falling just before midnight. It seems to have kept on going all night although the flakes that are falling as I type are much smaller and finer. I’ve yet to dip a toe outside but it does look like we’ve had about 5cms in town and the forecast is promising more snowfall throughout the weekend with a rain/snow limit lurking around 500m.