Chamonix Snow Report: 31st March 2012

The snow was certainly softening up quickly but I was diverted from my usual route over towards the Col de Voza and the Voza-Prarion 4 man by some irresistible spring corduroy on the Stade Fiz red that hadn’t been touched. It was gorgeous and after several knife through butter turns I got a bit of a shock as I came over a roller to find that a large chunk of the piste was grass! There were no warning sign or poles or anything so it was fortunate that I hadn’t got too carried away or I would have come to a very abrupt (and rather muddy) halt! Further down this run where it joins the Table d’Orientation there were more large expanses of grass showing through in the middle of the piste and the drag that runs alongside was closed. Having got a bit of a surprise I made sure to pay close attention to those SLOW and DANGER signs that dot the piste for the rest of the day, as I thought there might actually be a chance I’d find a couple of cattle on the other side today, munching on the new spring grass!

These are genuinely the first bare patches I’ve come across anywhere in the valley this season but a couple of the runs are most definitely starting to feel the strain of being hammered by the sun all day. One half of the Maisonneuve red is now un-skiable (although the other side is still fine) and over the back, the bottom of the Abbaye run is also all grass as you arrive at the Crozat chailift. There is still a track that takes you the last 150m though so this run is still worth doing – for the great views down the Arve valley if nothing else.

It’s a different story on the shadier Bellevue side of Les Houches though and even by midday there still wasn’t much give in the snow. The Schuss des Dames was pretty much bullet proof corduroy and coming down it on a snowboard I sounded like Dr Who’s Tardis as it prepares to teleport (I may be mixing up my Dr Who and Star Trek references there – did the Tardis teleport??) Anyway, I’m sure you get the gist of the racket I was making. Couple of runs down there and I was straight back over to the slush of the Prarion side as I’d far rather dodge the odd brown patch in forgiving snow than have my teeth shaken out in the name of fun!

Whilst some of my photos definitely don’t show Les Houches in its best light, it was still fun there today although it’s going to be “game over” for some of the runs if we don’t get another dump of snow quite soon.

However, if you’re coming out here in the next couple of weeks, there’s really nothing to be unduly worried about – there is still a lot of fun skiing to be done in the valley. Undoubtedly, there are always snow snobs who declare that the ski season is over by the end of Feb; invariably these people are also dreadful bores and most probably only ski Val d’Isere (dah’ling) but they would also be wrong. We often get some of the biggest snow dumps and enjoy some of the best skiing of the season in April and at worst, as long as you come out prepared to enjoy spring skiing for what it is – make the most of the snow in the morning and bag yourself a deckchair or a table on a terrace from 2pm for a leisurely lunch, you won’t be disappointed. With the weather that we’ve had for the last 2 weeks you’ll still get plenty fun skiing in AND go home with a tan that compares to 10 days on a Mallorcan beach. Well, from the neck up at least...... ;O)