Chamonix Snow Report: 4th January 2005
Since the last snowfall two nights ago the weather has been sunny. That fall was fairly meagre, about 1cm down in town and 10cm up on the hill. In spite of that, the snow up at Le Tour yesterday was reasonably good - we had a few fresh lines after a short hike from the top of the Tete de Balme chairlift. It wasn't bottomless powder but there were plenty of tempting cornices. The pistes were in good shape, well groomed with the snow firm but not too hard. Riding the Autannes chairlift at Le Tour was a cold experience though as the wind was strong causing some cold fingers on the way up.
Today we headed up to Brevent and Flegere again since we wanted some sun. The slopes are mostly south facing and warm in the mornings with the snow softening up nicely. The queues have subsided now and even though we turned up at around 11am at the Brevent station there was barely any wait to get on the lift. Crossing to Flegere was quick with not many people about, and we headed straight up the Index lift where there was a short queue of only five minutes. From the lift, the red Pylones run still looked a bit patchy but not too bad; instead we decided to go up the Floria drag and try the Floria run again. The moguls have got smaller and the uphill section we had to walk up last time was just about possible to ride. The lower section of the red Crochues run is officially closed but we rode down it anyway and although bumpy it wasn't too bad - bumps providing good opportunities for jumping!
Evettes, the blue run leading back to the Flegere-Brevent Liaison, was better than it has been with only few stones on it now; although in today's warm and sunny weather I wonder how long it will stay in good condition. The blue run, La Source, from the liaison to the Parsa lift is similar as it also catches the sun; it is holding out fairly well although some stones and small rocks had fallen from the bank above onto the piste. (A pisteur was comically grappling with a rock to remove it.)
Some of the best snow of the day was from the top of the Brevent cable car on the Charles Bozon black run. There are two parts to it, one of which was closed, perhaps due to being too rocky. The top section was good with the snow cold and very fast. The mid section was pretty moguled, and had a few rocks to avoid. The steepness of the slope makes this run a technical challenge but there's an easier route if you follow the cat track around that leads to a less steep lower section, with smaller moguls. We took the Gondola back down to Chamonix from Planpraz as the return run to Chamonix is now closed because the snow is too thin. The weather looks set to stay clear with warm sunny days and cold clear nights.
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
Additional snow and weather information provided, with thanks, by meteo.chamonix.com and the Tourist Office
Stats
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Level 3
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0
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Total Pistes: 80
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Alt. Resort: 2000
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Alt. Summit: 2500
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Alt. Last Snow: 1042
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High Temp.: 5
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Alt. High Temp.: 1042
