Chamonix Snow Report: 4th March 2011

Although the back country is looking the best it has all season, there is still the avalanche dangers that persist. With the sunny warmer weather it will mean that south facing slopes especially in the afternoon might warm up enough to trigger a slide. There has also been a bit of wind high up so there is the possibility of wind slab avalanche, where the wind transports snow to the leeward side of a slope and creates instability in the snow pack. Making sure you have the right knowledge, equipment and take note of the conditions will help make a decision if a route in the back country is a good idea or not. Taking advice of professionals is always a good idea, and hiring a guide will give you the best and safest experience possible.

Yesterday we decided to go on a tour which starts at the top of the Floria lift in Flegere and finishes in the village of Le Buet, which has a train station that can return you to anywhere in the valley. We set off fairly late at around 11am when the slopes where beginning to warm up, so the danger of a slide was on our minds. We walked up and over the first ridge which had a boot pack in but as it was warming up and became very soft so it was like putting the first trail in and was a lot of hard working. It took us a good hour and a half to get to the top of the ridge and we were already quit exhausted but as the temperature was increasing and there was a danger of the slopes we were about to traverse sliding we had to make our way quickly on to the next hike section. Once over the ridge there is a large traverse to get in to the bowl, however you can ride straight down to the bottom of the valley on this side but will have a longer walk up to the next col. As we were fairly knackered already we took the route of the traverse which took hardly any time to pass as we were very keen not to be in an avalanche.

Once the traverse is completed there is another traversing walk (skin up if you're on skis) which takes around 40 minutes to get to the col where you can ride straight down from there in to Buet. Although there still seemed to be fresh opportunities on this route there where many more if we climbed a little further up. So we started climbing up the ridge line which takes you to a lesser known route between two main routes the Croche de Berrard and the Col du Berrard. The hike up started off fairly chilled in crampons, but there were some bare patches and loose rocks over a cliff face to be careful of and negotiate appropriately. The last section of the climb as the snow had slide became more of an ice climb so when we eventually made it to the top we were very pleased to be alive and ready to ride fresh powder all to ourselves.

With our board and skis on, it was time to negotiate the next obstacle. Although there was miles of fresh the slopes where clearly heavily loaded with wind slab so we had to be very careful in choosing our line not to set off the more loaded sections of our chosen route. We managed to get away with it and had the most amazing powder I have experienced this season. Once on the valley bottom we picked our way through the trees and over the river to eventually reach Le Buet for welcome drink in the Hotel Buet while we waited exhausted and exhilarated for our train ride home, and an early night!

Check out our Mountain Guide Listings for contact details of local guiding and activity companies.

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!