Chamonix Snow Report: 7th & 8th December 2013

We had a go on classic skis over skating skis not wanting to tire ourselves out too much before heading up Grands Montets. Following the pre-made tracks it was fairly simple to maintain your balance and zoom along the course. I would definitely recommend it as a great way to get a decent work-out whilst taking in the beautiful winter scenery, something you don’t really get much time to appreciate when zipping along on downhill skis. If you want to have a go yourself, you can hire cross country skis from the Intersport on the Avenue du Bouchet. 

In the afternoon we headed to Grands Montets. There hasn’t been any fresh snow for a week so I dubious about how conditions were going to be this weekend.  Only 5 of the 11 lifts were open on Saturday and Sunday (Logan, Bochard, Plan Joran, Marmottons and Plan Roujon) but you can check lift status for when you go up here.

We arrived at the mid station and after a little coaxing/bullying of those in our group who wanted to break in their ski legs gently on blues (?), we headed straight up to the reds at the top of the Bochard bubble.  The conditions up there were surprisingly good considering the lack of snow. Although the powder on the pistes was thin on the ground, other than the odd patch here and there, it wasn’t icy. We had no problems in speeding down the mountain.

For powder hunters though, the mountain was pretty tracked out and the conditions on piste vs off piste were not that different. The snow was fairly hard and compacted underneath although there was some soft powder on top, it was nothing to get excited about.
Despite there being a bit of a chill in the air, with the cloudless sky and the snow conditions combined you could have been forgiven for thinking it was March / April. It seemed to be exactly the kind of sunny day spent more on deck loungers than on the pistes that we missed at the end of last season.

Waking up on Sunday to another blue bird day, we returned to Grands Montets and were hopeful that conditions would still be good, especially as the snow cannons had been going throughout Saturday. Sadly the snow that had been created hadn’t really been spread out and the pistes remained untouched, so much so that rocks had started to emerge on the runs damaging my new skis!

A bit of a warning about the home run (Pierre à Ric): At the end of the afternoon we decided to brave this piste, even though there had been no snow since last weekend and we heard that it was getting a bit sketchy then. We were all good enough skiers to handle it, and since everyone else was doing it, including little tots snow ploughing away – we thought we would definitely be fine. So like little lemmings, off we went…. Big mistake…I think I would have had more success making it down this piste if I had been on ice skate!. I fell over twice on what felt like concrete making some pretty impressive bruises on both of my sides. Each time I fell, I slide down a significant portion of the slope (elegantly of course) taking any remaining snow that had been covering the sheet ice with me. (Although it was a little entertaining, I do apologise to the five snowboarders that came down the slope just after one of my falls, who then proceeded to wipe out, one after the other, on the the ice rink that I had created). Needless to say, once I arrived at the bottom, I felt firmly put back in my place as a very average skier and certainly a poor one by Chamonix standards. So, unless you really want to challenge yourself or are a good skier/boarder, I would give this run a miss until there has been more snow, and if you are going to give it a bash, avoid doing it at the very end of the day when skiers like me are taking all the snow off the piste. :-p

Let’s hope we’ll get a fresh dump before next weekend! Don't forget to sign up to our dump alert.