A snowy landscape with a village in the background

A snowy landscape with a small village in the distance

A person is skiing down a snow covered slope

A snowy mountain range with a small village in the foreground

Chamonix Snow Report: 4th February 2010

featured in Snow report Author Kieran Sharp, Updated 24 October 2014

There has been a fair amount of cloud in the valley for most part of the day, but it is not always bringing snow with it so the trees have been a good option looking for some definition to the slopes we are riding. Although not a lot of snow has fallen at the moment, the snow has remained soft from the previous big dump and if you know where to look, you can still find some fresh snow.

This weekend should see a new disturbance coming in, bringing with it lots of white fluffy stuff, and it's the start of the peak period this weekend which should last right through till Easter. The town will be full of life, lots of parties for all tastes in music, and the mountain will be full of people enjoying their winter holidays.

There are lots of tree riding opportunities in Chamonix if you know where to look you can get some really good runs, if you don't you can find yourself walking back up, making long unnecessary traverses, or find yourself in some very narrow tight turning conditions with a lot of bush whacking going on! A good way to avoid this would be to book a guide in the valley through one of the many companies operating in the valley, and there are a lot of British speaking fully qualified guide working in Cham that really know the area well.

There are bowls in the valley which are accessible but out of the way so no one really rides them and stay cold because they are always in the shade, and this is where a local guides knowledge will really help you make the most of your stay in Chamonix getting the most amount of powder for your money!

A lot of the tree runs are below the mid-stations of each resort. Yesterday we went to enjoy some of the couloirs at Grand Montets which has many options from the furthest (skier's right gulley) exiting on to the home run to the furthest left entering in to the village of L'avancher. On this occasion we where riding what is called and looks like a “Y” coulior. The entrance to this is directly behind the pizza restaurant between the 2 chair lifts which serve the snow park area.

From the top we started traversing left for a while trying to spot the blind entrance to the route. It took us some time to find the right direction as the normal drop in point had around 20ft of rocks in it, so went a little further round through the trees to find an alternative entrance. There is a large cliff which spans a fair part of the couloir so where being very careful about choosing the right spot. We eventually found a route in to the very wide couloir where we could totally open up our turns choosing to jump off the sides a bit or hit some of the boulders getting a bit of air on the way down, the snow was still pretty soft.

After exiting on to the nursery slope of Chosolets we went back to the cable car to have another go at the same one as the snow was so good! Followed by the regular couple of Après ski beers in the office bar!

Check out what to do around town once the lifts have closed with our Apres Ski Report - a weekly round up of what's hot and where to party in Chamonix!