Chamonix Snow Report: 3rd February 2009

This is true in one sense. The rock drops and cliff-jump lines far from the pistes at Brevent's Hotel Face are well-known. The gullies off Flégère's La Floria drag lift are first stop for ski bums looking for air on a powder day. And the trees of Les Grands Montets are a lots of fun to jib, whether on a snowboard or a pair of skis.

But sometimes, that's not enough. Sometimes you need to know that you'll have a smooth, man-made landing. The reassurance of a well-shaped takeoff. Riding a straight, predictable metal rail - not a tree branch. And that's how I found myself in the Grands Montets park at 11.00 this morning. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm pushing thirty, have never been particularly sporty and don't bounce half as well as I used to. But today was as good as park days get. The foehn wind, which has blown at valley level over the last few days, had softened the landings and the late-morning sunshine was making the in-runs really creamy and easy on the edge.

The Grands Montets park is below the Bochard gondola, and runs paralell to the straightline schuss on the way back to Lognan. It was developed by park crew HO5, who've been in charge of the thing since it's inception, and they know what they're doing. Alongside the main park is a rhythm section of small bumps - which everyone calls 'woops' - and a couple of very small (green-grade) kickers, perfect for beginners and people who are keen to get a little more confident with the feeling of being in the air.

The main park starts off with a pair of side-by-side kickers, on red-grade and one blue-grade. The red one has a larger gap to cross before the landing, and a higher takeoff. After a short pause, there's an identical pair, before a red-grade cheese wedge kicker with a big, steep landing. The fourth hit is a whippy quarterpipe next to a black oil barrel jib. After the barrel, there's a pause in the flow of the park before a junction; skier's left goes into a boardercross, while skier's right opens up into a pair of red and blue kickers. Finally, before the traverse back to the chair, there's an up-flat-down rail next to a very large black-grade cheese wedge kicker.

We haven't been in the park all week though; at Grands Montets, we've had some great turns on the Bochard piste, which is lovely and fast in the mornings, and off the Herse chair, which has ungroomed bump fields for that calorie-burning leg workout. We haven't been off the top for a while - the aspect is a little shaded and it'll be icey up there.

Brevent and Flégère have been quite seriously affected by the snow-eating foehn wind, and although the ski-outs at both resorts remain open, there are more and more stones coming through every day. Even so, it's lovely to be able to ski to town rather than queue to download on the lifts.

The forecast is calling for cloud and wind on and off over the week...we've been hearing great things about the fresh snow in Courmayeur in the meantime, so until some of that heads our way, you'll have to make do with riding the park in Chamonix. Good thing it's so good right now!

Until next time,

Tom

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