Chamonix Snow Report: 4th March 2006
It's been snowing heavily in Chamonix since yesterday. This morning, as I write, I'm looking out of my window at the snow, which is still coming down thick and fast. It's set to continue like this all day and night. On our balcony the temperature is 0ºC. The stick in our garden that we use for measuring the snow depth is getting close to being buried: it's reading 175 cm and it only goes up to 220 cm. So far we've had so much snow that all the ski areas in the valley were closed yesterday and are closed again today. The avalanche risk is extreme, at level 5 (the highest). The only area now open is Les Houches (not on the Chamski lift pass), which has managed to remain open because of its lower altitude and wooded slopes. Here in Argentiere it's just the nursery slopes at Les Chosalets still open.
Sadly, yesterday was the last day of my week with McNab Snowboarding. It's been a great week and they've certainly made the most of the difficult weather of the last few days, taking us on some memorable rides. Thanks to all the guys at McNab, I can't recommend them highly enough to anyone considering a snowboarding holiday in Chamonix. Check out their website for some very interesting snowboarding expeditions they have planned for Greenland and the Himalayas. (One Adil Latif has been staying at McNab's this week. Adil, who is blind, is learning to snowboard and is planning a helidrop in aid of the victims of the Asian Earthquake. Click on his name for more information on his project, to donate and to follow his progress.)
The weather closed in yesterday and almost everything in the valley was shut so Neil took us down the valley to Les Houches for the day. With the resort not on the Chamski lift pass it's a place that I admit to hardly ever visiting but when the snow is coming down thick and fast it's a really good place to head for as the trees provide shelter. The traffic was fairly heavy as we approached Les Houches, everyone obviously had the same idea as us, but once we were up onto the lifts the queues weren't too bad. The weather got the better of less hardy skiers and boarders I suspect, especially after lunch when the prospect of heading back out into the cold snowy weather would have been enough to send anyone home, but we were made of tougher stuff and stayed up all day. Neil took us on some pretty interesting routes to find some fresh snow; some required some bush whacking to access and a few steep sections, and the run below the Prarion gondola was one of them. The top section was really good, with plenty of fresh snow, probably 30-40 cm, and light too. Lower down it was bumpier, wetter and thinner but still rideable. It was also perfect for making snowballs: if you were in the Prarion gondola, it was us throwing snowballs at you.
It took us a while to find a restaurant for lunch, as they were all rammed full of people getting out of the snow and cold. Eventually we gave up on the mountain restaurants and headed down to the village where we found a table in an intriguing nautically themed café. Strangely there was no fish on the menu. The afternoon saw the snow at low altitude turn very wet and almost sleety, making the lower runs feel like they were coated in glue. Higher up though it was a full-on blizzard, but the trees up there managed to break up the weather, and visibility was plenty good enough. The back side was sheltered from the wind and gave us a few good runs with a lift line run thrown in for good measure complete with a log to board slide. The pistes were all in good shape, with lots of piles of soft stuff to jump on, and stashes of powder at the sides of the runs. It had been the kind of day where rather than head out into the miserable weather I'd normally stay home and do something else. But, today we'd had a good day's riding that was over all too quickly and before we knew it were heading home to dry out our wet clothes.
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
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
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Level 5
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0
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Total Pistes: 80
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Alt. Resort: 1050
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Alt. Summit: 3000
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Alt. Last Snow: 1250
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High Temp.: 4
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Alt. High Temp.: 1050
