Chamonix Snow Report: 30th March 2008

Saturday dawned cloudy as forecast, and despite arriving at Grands Montets just after 9am the place was heaving. The queue for a day ticket, which my friend needed, was out of the door and would have taken an age, the queue for the cable car, was even worse, well out of the door- we were looking at a wait of at least 2 hours total to get on the mountain. So a quick change of plan was needed. The old faithful sprang immediately to mind, Vallorcine.

Arriving at an empty Vallorcine we were soon heading up. I had one of my best days on snow ever. We simply lapped the Tete de Balme chair all day riding and skiing the back bowls. The snow was superb. It was soft and deep, with plenty of untracked terrain to go at. We went all over only avoiding the lower section of the central gully as it had some F big cornices lining the walls. Interestingly on one trip up the chair we witnessed a cornice collapse in the area to skiers left of the Belle Place piste. It was set off by a skier and stopped just short of the piste, the skier managed to safely ski out to the side. The piste is also in superb condition with soft packed powder over a firm base.

Two top tips can be drawn from our experience- get your pass in advance, and when it's rammed elsewhere try Vallorcine.

Sunday we planned to do a day tour, the idea was get to Flegere early and beat the rush. Despite a combination of Chambre Neuf, Monkey, Tiger Tiger, and something strange happening with the clocks in the middle of the night, we still managed a creditable 9.15 start fully kitted up at Brevent. Unfortunately Brevent was closed until mid day, something to do with the cables! Flegere was also closed due to high winds. The very helpful woman in the ticket office quickly sorted us out a reservation on the 10.40 bin up the Midi. I can't imagine what the impact of the closures had on Grands Montets.

I was rather surprised that the avalanche threat level was posted as 4, high, at the Midi cable car station, I understood it was due to drop to 2. The conditions that met us at the top put a stop to any ideas of doing any of the more difficult variations on the classic Vallee Blanche route.The winds were a steady 80kph, plus some cloud was gathering over on the Italian side and threatening to engulf the whole Vallee. The tracks were also being constantly obliterated by the snow driven by the high winds.

Although the wind and spindrift made the day feel bitter, the actual temperature measured on my pals key ring (not too accurate) was plus eight, which had implications for the stability of the snow bridges, so staying on the well used tracks where the snow was compressed and therefore safer was a priority, shame then it was so hard to see.

The snow was in fantastic condition maybe the best I have ever experienced on the Vallee Blanche; there were lots of super light powder puddles around, and little sign of the usual small moguls. Just before the start of the Geant Icefall section, the track turns north and passes under an East facing slope. There had been an avalanche here which had run right over the normal track so the threat warning was spot on.

The rest of the trip was delightful if uneventful. The gondola that runs up to Montenvers was closed by the wind, so we decided to ski all the way back to Chamonix rather than hike up to the station. The track is not complete but the walking sections were not too long.

The avalanche threat is set to rise to 3, 10-20cm of snow is forecast for tomorrow (Monday), with lighter winds plus dropping temperatures, and a nice day on Tuesday.

Both the back bowls at Le Tour and the Vallee Blanche are best enjoyed in the company of a guide, and today was a good example of how conditions can change rapidly for the worse.

All in all, quite a busy weekend if not quite the one I had planned.

Check out what to do around town once the lifts have closed with our latest Apres Ski Report - a weekly round up of what's hot and where to party in Chamonix!