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Chamonix Snow Report: 4th April 2005

featured in Snow report Author Ellie Mahoney, Chamonix Editor Updated

We had blue skies all day today. It was +2ºc at the house this morning and the maximum was +18ºc later on. The forecast is for more cloudy weather tomorrow and beyond, and as we have some visitors this week we took the opportunity to take them up the Aiguille du Midi on a sightseeing trip while the weather is clear and the views good. It was glorious up there. It is always worth a visit even if you don't plan to ski down the Vallée Blanche. We went up at around 11 am and I was surprised at how few people were skiing down then. Sometimes, due to the numbers going up, you have to take timed tickets and wait your turn but not at the moment. I guess we are out of season now but maybe the recent warnings about snow bridges weakened in the warm conditions are taking their toll. Having said that there were lots of tracks from the bottom of the arête, heading down the Grand and Petit Envers routes so plenty of people have been there since the last snowfall.

Later in the afternoon we took a ride up the Chamonix-Planpraz gondola. As it was about 3pm, we didn't have time to get over to Flegere, so we stuck around Brevent for what remained of the afternoon. We took a ride up the cable car and rode down Charles Bozon. The snow was softening up but had not turned totally to slush. On the mogulled sections you need to watch out for lurking rocks but on the whole the run is very well covered. The Vioz piste down the bottom of the Col Cornu and Parsa chairs is faring less well but is still very doable (however, beware at least one large exposed patch far to skier's right just over a rise parallel with the now closed bordercross).

We took a couple of runs off the Col Cornu chair. Bearing in mind that only recently this piste was showing bare patches, today it was very well covered and we had some fun in the slush (quite heavy and granular so don't be tempted to go out in a t-shirt even though it's warm, as if you fall your skin could suffer). We pretty much had the piste to ourselves too.

We finished the day with a sitting down race (snowboards make great sledges) to the bottom of an empty Savoy beginners' piste and made it down just in time to witness the spectacle of two of our poor, misguided housemates ‘competing' in a town-wide three-legged, fancy-dress pub crawl.


Useful Links
Cross-country skiing is Closed
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.

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

Stats

Avalanche Risk
  • Level 2

Snow Report
  • 0

  • Total Pistes: 80

  • Alt. Resort: 2000

  • Alt. Summit: 3000

  • Alt. Last Snow: 1042

  • High Temp.: 18

  • Alt. High Temp.: 1042