Chamonix Snow Report: 5th March 2010

Taking account of the conditions, we decided to head on a tour that we have done a few times before. Understanding the orientation of the slopes and the wind direction, we knew we would be in for at least a bit of powder! The tour starts in Flegere and finishes in Le Buet, a small village near Vallorcine round the back of Le Tour. It was an amazing day, brilliant blue skies and some fresh powder waiting for us just the other side of the mountain. We headed up fairly early to Flegere to get the best of the snow before the sun got on it, heading up the Index chair then the Floria button lift where the tour begins. We got into our snow shoes, turned our transceivers on and strapped our boards to our packs, eager to climb up and over the ridge in to a field of hopefully un-touched powder! There was a fair few tracks on the way up so we weren't entirely sure how fortunate we might be with getting some fresh, but once at the top we only saw 2 tracks going down the route we were taking!

It takes about an hour to walk straight up and over the ridge and it becomes really quite steep towards the top, so sure footing is a must and even the use of crampons might help especially if it's icy. Most people take the route of a long traverse on this tour which means there is less walking to get to the main route, however this means there is an 800m face of un-touched powder being missed! So we descended this amazing face before getting to the main route, meaning we had a slightly longer walk ahead of us but it was totally worth it for the ride!

After our descent we made our way towards the end of the traverse line where we changed equipment and walked up to the traverse. It took about 40 minutes and then followed by another sustained walk to the Col Du Berard, taking around 30 minutes (or 45 if you stop to admire the view and take some pictures like we were!) Once at the col we quickly switched onto our boards, stuffed our faces with food and water and hit the fresh lines before the groups doing the same tour behind us caught up and stole it from us! The route down was epic - a few tracks around but generally we were getting fresh the whole way down, coupled with some nice floaty rock drops to throw ourselves off. Once at the end of our tour we picked our way through the bottom of the valley, trying to avoid trees and falling in the river! Great care should be taken when on the valley floor as this is an area where massive avalanches occur so crossing the valley as quickly as possible is a good idea, and always take the advice of a guide and check the conditions before you go.

Once out of the valley and the trees we headed to the Hotel Buet for quick beer before catching the train back to town, feeling exhausted and stoked at the excellent day we had just had!

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!