Chamonix Snow Report: 29th April 2005

According to the notices we saw today – the Col Cornu chair at Brevent shuts tomorrow evening (Saturday) for good, and the remaining lifts there will stay open only until the end of Sunday. From Monday morning, only the two cable cars (Argentiere–Lognan, Lognan–Grands Montets), the Bochard gondola and the Marmottons chair will be open.

In spite of the fact that soon we will only have Grands Montets, we chose to go there today because, given its aspect and altitude, in such high temperatures it is the only place to be if you don't want glue-snow all day. We arrived at around midday, sweltering even in only hoodies and first layers. We've been trying to get out early recently as the snow goes off later in the day with the sun, and today we feared that we had arrived too late. However, our first two runs down the Bochard piste were great fun – slushy but not too sticky. Even off piste was good at first with a kind of sugary slush that leaves you feeling more like a surfer than a snowboarder.

The queues for the cable car looked short so next we went for a ride up to the top (roughly a 5-minute wait). Given all the harnesses and ice axes that you normally see in the queue, going up in only a hoodie seems like a kind of sacrilege (nevertheless, it's nice to do our bit to reinforce those snowboarder stereotypes wherever possible), but the hard-core weren't out in force today and as it was only -2°c at the top we weren't under-dressed. We rode down the Pylones piste at the front and headed skier's left to join the Bochard piste again. The snow up there was colder of course, but also bumpier and tougher on the legs so once down we decided to stick to the Bochard. Today we spotted the first marmotte of the year, head poking out of a hole just left of the lift station as you ride up. The place will be teeming with them soon no doubt but the first one is such a novelty!

Our next ride on and around the Bochard piste turned out to be our last. It was about 3.15pm and the snow to the sides had suddenly tipped over into being glue so we called it a day. A friend who had been up first thing said it had been frozen and hard then, so if the sun keeps up like this we reckon for our last week we're going to be in spring-skiing mode: out at about 11am and in before 3pm.

Useful Links
Cross-country skiing is Closed
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

We will be keeping this Chamonix snow report updated often during the season, but if you want even more up-to-date news on the ski conditions, why not sign up for our Dump Alert? We'll email you each time it snows enough to significantly change the skiing conditions. It's great to know that the snow is falling in the run-up to your holiday, and it might even allow you to book a last-minute weekend when the snow is particularly good. The service is free, and you can unsubscribe whenever you like.

Additional snow and weather information provided, with thanks, by meteo.chamonix.com and the Tourist Office