Chamonix Snow Report: 2nd January 2005
After the jovial chaos of New Year's Eve in Chamonix centre, which we spent dodging bangers, hand-held rockets, and champagne corks, January 1st dawned bright and clear(ish). Up at Le Brevent, late morning, all was peace and quiet with one of those freaky mountain weather moments – bright in town, a layer of patchy, coming-and-going cloud mid-mountain, and brilliantly clear above – lending a surreal atmosphere. By the time we got onto the Col Cornu chair and looked down, however, all we could see was a thick layer of cloud obscuring everything below where the Cornu and Chamois pistes join, and a lone skier standing there appeared to be perched on the edge of an abyss (no camera that day, otherwise we could share this with you!).
Looking up skier's left from the top of Col Cornu chair there was plenty of evidence of hardcore activity in the form of scary lines in the couloirs from the very top of the rocky ridge of the Aiguille Charlanon. For the less adventurous the red Charlanon piste offered a pleasant cruise, although some rocks still poke through so you need to keep your wits about you. This piste has a black sister run, the Variante Charlanon, which is shut at the moment, but when open it offers some good, steep, technique-testing terrain for anyone in search of something a bit tougher.
At La Flegere the sun had obviously been doing its work, as the snow cover looks shrunken and greasy and the dreaded rocks are beginning to show again. We took the Index up (otherwise known as the Darth Vader lift on account of each chair's distinctive - and distinctly vintage - green plastic hood), followed by the Floria draglift. The run down – at first on the open black Floria - offered a little bit of everything – mountainous moguls (that were unexpectedly good fun), well-groomed cruising, and, as we took a detour lower down onto the closed red Crochues, hidden stashes of powder and finally lumps of challenging crustiness.
Today has been a bit of a washout due to mechanical failure (a binding bolt lost according to Sod's Law just as the shops shut for lunch). We started out at Les Planards - a small, contained ski area beneath the Montenvers train track. One of our housemates is learning to snowboard and Les Planards is a great place to go for mixed groups as it has a small drag lift accessing green slopes for absolute beginners, and a chair leading to a gentle blue and a red. The forecasted snow flurries haven't yet materialised and today in Chamonix it's been fairly mild. The snow there was good – lots of loose stuff and small bumps to play on. As I write, the clouds are rolling in bringing some very light rain in town. When it rains we always console ourselves by saying ‘If it's raining here, what's it doing up there?' We daren't hope for another powder day just yet, but at the moment every little helps. I'm off to get my bindings fixed now the shops have re-opened after their 3 hour lunch break!
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 3
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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: 2500
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Alt. Last Snow: 1042
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High Temp.: 3
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Alt. High Temp.: 1042
