Chamonix Snow Report: 31st December 2004
Thursday was another day of sun and blue sky. We chose Le Tour as we hoped L'Aiguillette draglift would finally open. We'd seen lots of untracked snow around there a few days earlier, and as hoped it opened at around noon. On the red run, Aiguillette, skier's left from the lift, the piste hadn't been bashed but that didn't bother us as we were more interested in the fresh snow. The slope's not quite steep enough for lots of powder turns here so we mostly straightlined it!
We took a short hike from the top of the Col de Balme draglift up to the Col de Balme itself, where you can stand on the border between France and Switzerland (there is also a refuge restaurant up there, accessible by a traverse skier's left from the top of the Autannes chair). We dropped a small cornice on the way down and got a few powder turns before joining the blue Liaison Balme piste. We also spent some time on the Ecuries red run under the Autannes chairlift. This was fairly hard but the cover had improved since we were last there with only a few brown patches and some windblown loose stuff to bite into. The sides of the piste had some pretty good jumps including a particularly nice one out of the gully at the skier's right of the piste. Be careful of skiers on the piste if you use this one though. It is often windy at Le Tour and yesterday was no exception - icy cold on the chairs - although it was comfortably warm in the sun.
Today we headed over to Les Grands Montets as it's been a while since we've been there, and we had seen from Brevent that the Retour Pendant chairlift out of the Lavancher bowl had opened up. We were late getting there so were pleased to find that the car park wasn't all that full and there was no queue at the chairlift up to Plan Joran. From the Bochard gondola we took the Chamois black run. The signs telling us that the piste was closed weren't going to deter us, but having done the run I can thoroughly recommend it to anyone that likes moguls punctuated by a few rocks (it'll be another snowfall before this run opens I think). So the message is pay attention to the signs if you know what's good for you!
The snow at Grands Montets has improved dramatically since our last visit. Having said that, most of the off-piste is still pretty rocky and needs some more snow before it'll become a truly enjoyable option. There are also still some rocks on the upper sections of the runs from the Bochard gondola and the Herse chairlift, with corresponding yellow and black poles marking the hazards. The Marmottons run, however, is in excellent condition and being wide it is perfect for intermediates. The Pierre a Ric run back to Argentiere was great too, with hard but not too icy snow the whole way down.
Most of the lifts in Chamonix are open now and there's some fresh snow forecast for Sunday so it shouldn't be long before all the runs open.
Current status for opening of Pistes & Lifts
Webcams 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
