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Chamonix Snow Report: 3rd January 2008

featured in Snow report Author Jim Brady, Updated

The valley has been very busy over the past week with New Year revellers. The roads, car parks and lift queues have been feeling the strain, not to mention the bars and their customers. Thanks to improvements over the past few years there are few real bottle necks left in the lift system. The main hassle left now is the initial entry onto the mountain.

At Flegere/Brevent the quickest access is normally from the Brevent end of the system. At Grand Montets you have the choice of either the chair or cable-car. The choice here is more complicated, the chair is usually quicker to get on but takes a little longer to get you a little lower, and is distinctly cooler. This week the chair has been starting from behind the main cable car station at the intermediate station. At Le Tour by far the quickest way on to the mountain is to access it via the gondola at Vallorcine. Once on the mountain at Le Tour the lift to avoid is the chair from Charamillion, however this is difficult if you want a cup of tea.

Despite the recent snowfall amounting to only 10 cm, it has still refreshed the pistes and off-piste nicely. Sometimes a small amount of snow makes things worse by hiding stones and bare patches with a thin covering but as the pistes were already in good condition it has improved them further.

On New Years Eve, following my own advice we headed for Le Tour via Vallorcine, it was sunny but quite chilly. All the pistes are holding up well, with most being fairly soft and grippy with the occasional bit of hardpack, and still being kept mogul free by the pisteurs. Le Tour is a fantastic area for skiing off piste, with no glaciers to worry about and generally not too steep. One of the routes we skied, was the shady side of the ridge from the Aiguilette de Possettes back towards the gondola, it's a great run, and still a bit of fresh to be had here and there, but take care not to venture too low into the nature reserve.

New Years day, a bit the worse for wear, we headed up Grand Montets which was not at all busy. There were no queues and we only waited a few minutes for the top section of the cable-car. Once passed the initial icy steep section, the snow conditions were great. Of the two marked but unpisted runs from the top only the Pylones is officially open. The closed Point de Vue run is starting to grow a few moguls in the middle section. The home run has some large areas of hardpack and can get hectic at the end of the day.

The wind has picked up today (3rd) its is the warm Foehn wind from the south, this is often bad news for the snow conditions, however the forecast is for some snow over the weekend. The strong wind has closed the lifts at Flegere/Brevent.

The avalanche threat level has been raised today to 3 (considerable), but remained at 2, at Le Tour.

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!

Useful Information
Cross-country skiing is Open
Piste Maps for Chamonix (pdf format), Les Houches (jpg format), Cross-country skiing (pdf format), and Mountain-bike trails (pdf format)
Current status for opening of Pistes & Lifts
Chamonix Webcam Index

We will be keeping this Chamonix snow report updated often during the season, but if you want even more up-to-date news on the ski conditions, why not sign up for our Dump Alert? We'll email you each time it snows enough to significantly change the skiing conditions. It's great to know that the snow is falling in the run-up to your holiday, and it might even allow you to book a last-minute weekend when the snow is particularly good. The service is free, and you can unsubscribe whenever you like.

Useful Links
Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research
French Avalanche Research Institute
Meteo France - Mountain weather and avalanche conditions bulletins (in French)
Henry's Avalanche Talk - popular avalanche training sessions based in French Alps as well as translation of current avalanche conditions
PisteHors.com - Backcountry Skiing and Snowboarding News in English for the French Alps. Excellent coverage of avalanche safety and advice.

Additional snow and weather information provided, with thanks, by meteo.chamonix.com and the Tourist Office

Stats

Avalanche Risk
  • Level 3

Snow Report
  • 0

  • Total Pistes: 75

  • Alt. Resort: 2000

  • Alt. Summit: 2700

  • Alt. Last Snow: 2700

  • 0

  • Alt. High Temp.: 1050