Two people skiing down a snowy slope with mountains in the background

A snowy mountain with a blue sky in the background

Chamonix Snow Report: 30th December 2005

featured in Snow report Author Ellie Mahoney, Chamonix Editor Updated 26 May 2016

Friday morning dawned, as Thursday, with the weather better than forecast. Bluish skies and -16 deg. c promised a fine if cold start both days. Thursday morning on Grands Montets certainly confirmed the saying that there is no such thing as bad weather just the wrong clothes, and the right clothes that morning were many many layers of fleece, a balaclava plus a hat or two! The first run from the top of the Bochard – despite the best efforts of the pisteurs – was an icy slide down the Marmottons/Coqs piste, straight to the Plan Joran café for a reviving hot chocolate. The polar slopes were empty, most people preferring the sunshine of Le Tour, or Brevent, where I heard the queues were long. Our reward for sticking out the temperature came at midday with the sun spilling into the Lavancher bowl, which provided superb skiing both on the Piste des Arolles and off piste for the rest of the afternoon as we watched the clouds gather over Brevent.

Friday saw us heading for Le Tour. We accessed the system via the new and virtually empty gondola from Vallorcine. This is a great way of avoiding the queues and parking hassles at Le Tour if you have a car; you can also get there by train, which stops right next to the lift. Again the cold weather was the dominating factor and after chilly ride up the Tete de Balme chair (is this the coldest lift in the valley?) we stayed in the sunshine on the front side most of the day enjoying good snow conditions. The off piste run down the ridge from the top of the Aig. des Posettes was my favourite but required a little care to avoid rocks. Towards the end of the day, huge lenticular clouds (named after their lens like appearance) formed on Mont Blanc – surely a promise of the much-needed snowfall.

The final run down was off piste below the Tete de Balme chair in search of the snow that had by now been scoured from the pistes – we found a little but were pleased to see the snow that had now started to fall. As I upload this report at 7:00pm it's -7ºC and has been snowing heavily for the last hour. The 40–60cm of fresh forecast for tonight looks like it's well on the way.

UPDATE

The snow fell heavily last night with us receiving 40cms by New Years Eve morning in Argentiere. The Avalanche risk has risen to 4 and the ski areas are struggling to open because of the sudden heavy snowfall. Hopefully the lifts will start running as the day progresses.

Useful Information
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.

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