Chamonix Snow Report: 7th February 2010

Before the weather settled in there was a really nice sunny day and there was still pockets of powder from the previous dump of snow, so out came the snow shoes in preparation for a hike to get some of the fresh still hanging around. We decided to head for a small hike between Brevent and Flegere where there is a popular route which starts from the top of the Cornu chair lift and end up with a large bowl of powder to ride which ends up half way down the Lachenal run in Flegere. We had a couple of warm up runs down the Cornu before getting in to our kit and turning on and checking our transceivers.

The route is the rock face that you can see as you get to the top of the chair lift. Heading to the left slightly, you will see a rope that's put in as a hand rail to help everyone get up on to the ridge and you will get some amazing views on the way. Not so great if you don't have a head for heights though! Once at the top of the ridge you can choose a number of short descents back down the front face or continue round the back on the hike to Flegere. There was a group of skiers hitting a drop off one of the cornices which go back down the front face and another group had built a large jump round the back of the ridge, making it a good area to hit some big drops and jumps with some amazing back drops for a great photo!

From the top of the ridge we headed in the direction of Flegere where there is about a 10 minute traversing walk, gaining around 100m in altitude toward the obvious bowl which descends in to Flegere. You can choose to take this route or head further up the hill to a second larger bowl which also descends in to Flegere. We chose to hit the first smaller bowl as there wasn't a single track heading this way! There were plenty heading over to the second bowl and seen as we weren't feeling that energised for the second slog, it felt like a good idea to head down the first bowl! So we strapped our boards on and headed on our merry way down this amazing run where the snow was still good even after a few days since the last dump! The snow stays in good condition in these two bowls as it is covered in shade all the time keeping the snow at a constant temperature avoiding the freeze thaw which other slopes receive. There is pretty much always fluffy pow here, except in the summer of course! Once at the end of the bowl we traversed high right to get some more fresh heading down to the bottom of the Lachenal piste, and then back down the home run for a bit of apres ski in the Rhododendrons.

It looks like we may have a couple of days of clear weather now followed by another system bringing a load of snow with it, so many more powder days shall be had this week as well!

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!