Chamonix Snow Report: 6th January 2009

Over at Grands Montets it's been slightly icier, without the benefit of the melting from the direct sun that the south-facing side of the valley Fortunately the terrain park is open, in the same place as it was last year under the bottom of the Bochard gondola. There are a couple of down rails and a line of red-grade jumps, although when we sessioned them yesterday the transitions were pretty whippy and hard to ride.

We've had a busy few days up the hill. We used our Mont Blanc Unlimited passes to snag us some cheap tunnel passes to get to Courmayeur on Saturday, which was incredibly busy and icy. It was the last day of the Christmas / New Year week and everything was rammed, from the parking lot to the lifts to the restaurants. Courmayeur, like Chamonix, is a big destination resort for weekend visitors from the surrounding towns, so Saturday is typically a busier day than midweek.

Sunday morning we headed up to the Aiguille du Midi to ride the Petit Envers. The Petit is one of the classic routes down, on the other side of the glacier from the Vallée Blanche and Vrai Vallée. We were filming for a short movie being made by a group of Chamonix-based guides, to educate freeriders on routefinding in glacial terrain...and how to avoid falling into crevasses. We took our time on the descent, getting plenty of shots of the gnarly terrain that the Petit is known for, and arrived at the Montenvers train station just after three. Snow conditions were excellent on the glacier, plenty of deep fresh powder, and the run-out at the bottom of the Mer de Glace was excellent - practically like a piste all the way from the Salle à Manger to the bottom of the Montenvers gondola, with only one or two sketchy bits of blue ice to negotiate on the way.

You know it already, but the routes from the Aiguille du Midi are all high mountain itineraries requiring specialist equipment - harness, ropes kit, ice screws, avalanche gear - and the knowledge of how to use it. It's not a piste. You'll need a guide to get you down in one piece, so check out the listings page to find a good one.

Today and yesterday we rode some of our favourite off-piste trails at Brévent-Flégère. We started off in the Pass Payot area, which is accessed from a hike around the back of the Brévent summit, and we were careful to pick the right chutes to get out and avoid the cliffs. We ended up in the Brévent bowl, riding 1000m of delicious avalanche debris back to valley level. But the 45-degree powder turns in the chute were more than worth the bumpy ride out.

Having finished with that side of the mountain, we made our way over to the Floria button lift at La Flégère and rode the gullies towards the La Trappe chairlift. The snow was excellent up high and hideous down low. My recommendation; stick to the pistes below 1500m, rather than the sun-baked crud, and track down south-easterly aspects for fresh powder at higher altitudes.

See you out there!

Tom