Chamonix Snow Report: 3rd December 2007

It's only about a 20 minute drive from Chamonix to Courmayeur as long as there aren't queues at the tunnel, so if you have wheels, it's really worth spending a day over there. The difference in the weather on the two sides of Mont Blanc is often incredible; I left a fairly non-descript overcast day in Cham and arrived to blue sky and sunshine in the Aosta Valley. If you're here for the season then it is probably worth your while buying an abonnement (multi-pass) for 10 or 20 single journeys (for a car they cost €100.70 or €140.90 respectively). Even with the discount the lift pass gives you, if you plan on going over a few times it'll work out cheaper to do it this way, plus the abonnements are non-nominative so anyone can use them allowing you to split the cost. If you don't have a car when you're here, then there is also a daily bus service that runs between the two – click here for the timetable (site is in Italian but you'll get the gist). If you make use of this extra terrain on the Unlimited pass this year, then you need to take some photo ID with you to the cash desk the first time you go, so that they can set you up with a ticket for the duration of your stay. Despite rumours that the reciprocal agreement doesn't kick in until December 10th, I had no problem getting my Courmayeur season pass and so headed straight up the cable car. If you're not familiar with the area, then here's a link to the piste map so you can see where I'm talking about.

There were only limited lifts open this weekend with access via the Courmayeur cable car, Checrouit gondola, Maison Vielle Chair, and then the Bertolini and Plan della Gabba chairs were open for skiing. On the way up the cable car, there were warning notices advising skiers to download back to Plan Checrouit via the gondola or Maison Vielle chair as coverage was a bit sketchy. However, as I went up there were a number of people skiing back down the Checrouit piste (13) without much difficulty at all, although it was sounding a pretty icy. Once at the top, the available pistes all appeared to have quite decent snow coverage on them although I soon discovered that it was all fairly bullet proof. Courmayeur had supposedly had quite a bit of fresh snow last week when Chamonix was getting hit by the fohn wind, but it appeared that the North West wind on the Italian side of the mountain had blown most of it off the slopes. The best skiing was definitely off the Plan della Gabba 4-man chair on the Bordercross (26) and Lazey (20) reds. There was also some really nice cheeky off-piste sections around here which confirmed that there had been quite a lot of new snow fall, even if it now had a bit of a wind blown crust on top – underneath, it was light as a feather! The long Internazionale (18) red to the bottom of the Bertolini chair also offered a good fast descent but it was just a bit too hard packed for my liking yesterday, although that could also have been down to the “in need of service” edges of my board!

I don't know Courmayeur particularly well, but I definitely plan to spend a lot more time there this winter. The area has two sides, Val Veney and Courmayeur but as a boarder, the only thing I don't like is that some of the runs going from one side to the other are on a bit of a camber and involve some long toe or heel traverses - absolute killers on the legs! However, there is some really good tree skiing and off-piste sections available here as well as big wide pistes if you prefer to stay on prepared terrain. I haven't even mentioned the restaurants, but it goes without saying that the food available on the hill in Courmayeur, is way better that anything you'll find in the Cham Valley, not just in quality but in price too. €2 for a cappuccino – I challenge you to find one that cheap here that doesn't make you gag!

I also took another quick run up the Grands Montets this weekend and, considering we haven't had any snow since I was last up there, everything was still in very good shape. Although it was a mild 4 degrees at Lognan (1972m) on Saturday, the temperatures have obviously been cold enough at night for the snow cannons to do their stuff, and the man made snow on the Pierre a Ric was in top condition. Above Marmottans, the main face of the mountain was noticeably rockier this week and I didn't see anyone venturing onto the off piste wisely enough. I found the snow much faster this week but maybe I was just getting my legs back again. Either way, I was quite happy doing laps of the Pierre a Ric and the bottom section of the Bochard red for a couple of hours until hunger got the better of me. It was pretty flat light when I was up there, so not great for snaps, which was also lucky as I only discovered that my camera battery was flat when I was at the top – doh!

Anyway, as I'm writing, there is heavy snow falling outside my window (almost horizontally at times!) and the snowline has dropped down to 1000m in the last 4 hours. With more snow forecast overnight (20-40cms @ 1500m) things are looking promising for the full-time opening of the Grands Montets from Saturday December 8th. At the moment, it will only be the Lognan and the Marmottans running, but with the big, fat flakes currently falling and a fairly snowy week ahead, that might all change by Saturday :O)

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