Chamonix Snow Report: 30th April 2007
After another week of beautiful weather and unseasonably hot temperatures, yesterday again dawned bright and sunny and perfect for the Chamonix end of season party - the Freeride Days! Usually held on the very last day of the ski season on the Grands Montets, this year it was pushed a week earlier to ensure that there was still snow to party on. The Freeride Days has become a legendary event in recent years and draws pretty much everyone out of the woodwork for one final bash on the mountain. That said the queues are guaranteed to be horrendous and yesterday was no different. Exacerbated by the Plan Joran chairlift being out of action for most of the morning, queuing times were well in excess of an hour. Your regular snow reporter, being a keen bean and heading up early, unfortunately lost the will to live in the morning mosh pit and gave up in favour of more relaxing activities in the valley. We on the other hand, blighted by a slightly later than planned evening in Le Garage Nightclub, swanned up at 1pm and were straight on the chair and up into the festivities!
Whilst snowboarding was not really top priority for the day, we were determined to do at least a couple of runs and make what might be our final turns for the season. Heading down the Marmottons piste to the heart of the party, the snow was very slushy and bumpy and our still tired from dancing legs had a bit of a hard time of it. The live music could be heard from afar, as could the cheers and jeers of the crowd around the water slide as an endless stream of crazy fools (and by crazy I mean mainly drunk!) tried to surf the length of the water jump on a variety of skis, boards, monoskis and a sledge!
Determined not to get hooked watching the crazy folk too soon, we headed straight to do top ticket – the Grands Montets cable car up to 3275m. This tends to be pretty much an annual occasion for us, with long queues during the season usually putting us off in favour of a few runs down the Herse. However, once up there we were all making vows of doing it more regularly in future as the views alone are worth the effort. We were even treated to an extreme close up of one of the valley helicopters at the very top which seemed to be doing more of a general fly by of the festivities rather than on any specific mission.
As expected at this altitude, the snow was noticeably firmer, even icy for the first 30m. The Point Vue piste (graded black) is the only marked route down from the top and it was, as it often is, VERY moguled. We headed off skiers right, just slightly off the edge of the piste where the snow was much less bumped and perfectly spring like enabling you to cut a good edge and some big GS turns. However, it's always important to remember up here that if you want to venture off the marked piste, you are in glacier territory and should definitely take a guide with you to really explore the area. We spotted a number of guided groups and ski tourers heading home from adventures further up the glacier.
As we descended the snow quickly deteriorated to the familiar slush on the rest of the mountain and the track taking you back to Lognan was quite sketchy in places, with rocks and mud showing through. So on that note it was back to the fun and games for us and we spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the “skiers' tans” - there was a lot of flesh on display and much of which had obviously not seen the sun since last summer! We spotted one group of boarders coming down the Bochard in Speedos and bikinis – all good fun until one took a fall and ended up with some nasty burn marks from the snow down one side – ouch!
The Big Air made good viewing as the great and the reckless alike flung themselves off the almighty big kicker that had been built for the occasion. The 50m rail was also impressive with the best attempt of the day making it 41m along the length. The action wasn't restricted to the ground though and we were treated to several aerial acrobatic displays from championship winning paragliders and the Flying Squirrel daredevils who leapt from a helicopter at 4000m and plummeted towards the crowds in winged flying suits before popping their chutes. For us though, it is and always will be the water slide that makes the day. Fair dues to everyone that had a go and the crowd were loving every minute of it, with wild cheers to those that made it and a nearby hot tub for those that didn't!
The Grands Montets is still open until May 8th so there is still opportunity to get a few more days sliding in before the 2006/2007 season is officially over. This is the first year in recent memory that we haven't had a big final dump of snow in April and although I'm enjoying being out in flip flops and a t-shirt, I feel a bit cheated! Maybe this week will bring us some powder……. :O)
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
Useful Links
Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research
French Avalanche Research Institute
Meteo France - Mountain weather and avalanche conditions bulletins (in French)
Henry's Avalanche Talk - popular avalanche training sessions based in French Alps as well as translation of current avalanche conditions
PisteHors.com - Backcountry Skiing and Snowboarding News in English for the French Alps. Excellent coverage of avalanche safety and advice
Additional snow and weather information provided, with thanks, by meteo.chamonix.com and the Tourist Office
Stats
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Level 2
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0
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Total Pistes: 75
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Alt. Resort: 2000
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Alt. Summit: 2800
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Alt. Last Snow: 2000
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High Temp.: 25
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Alt. High Temp.: 1050
