Chamonix Snow Report: 7th March 2005

We were late getting up the mountain today, about midday. Much to our surprise conditions were superb at Flegere with 20-30cms of fresh, and it wasn't very tracked at all. The sunny weather made things even better and the visibility was perfect. The lack of crowds was the icing on the cake – the hoards of families have gone. It was fairly windy and a little cold too, but the fantastic snow was so much fun that it wasn't a problem. The days are getting noticeably longer now as spring arrives and it's a relief to have sunshine right until the end of the day.

There was wind loading in places and it was a bit slabby higher up at Flegere. On the whole it wasn't really deep enough to cause any great concern on the avalanche front with the slabs only a few centimetres thick, but we noticed some small to medium sloughs; nothing major but potentially enough to carry you over some rocks. As we didn't have transceivers and shovels we were being fairly cautious with the off piste, but were sorely tempted by the snow. Having said that, on-piste conditions are perfect at the moment, and you can't fault them!

Despite being ancient, the Index lift offers access to some of the best riding in Flegere, so we spent the afternoon mostly on this lift spotting areas that looked good to ride, which wasn't at all hard. The difficulty was choosing where to go first as the options were too numerous. The terrain here is superb and the wind was creating new cornices and lips for us to ride and it was just getting better and better. A ride off piste down to skier's left of the Index was my favourite of the day: the snow was almost untracked in places and was the deepest and lightest that we had found. Around every corner was a fresh terrain feature to have fun with and the snow was soft enough to drop off things like they weren't there.

We finished with a ride down Combe Lachenal to the Liaison cable car. We traversed a little to the skier's right of the piste into some fairly soft looking snow that was tracked but not tracked out. It was most satisfactory with a light consistency, only tending towards a barely perceptible crustiness on the lower section. It was a good 20cm deep and certainly did the trick in bringing a grin to our faces. I think we'll come back tomorrow for second helpings as according to the weather forecast we're due a little more snow tonight.

Useful Links
Cross-country skiing is Open
Piste Maps for Chamonix (pdf format), Les Houches (jpg format), Cross-country skiing (pdf format), and Mountain-bike trails (pdf format)
Current status for opening of Pistes & Lifts
Chamonix Webcam Index

We will be keeping this Chamonix snow report updated often during the season, but if you want even more up-to-date news on the ski conditions, why not sign up for our Dump Alert? We'll email you each time it snows enough to significantly change the skiing conditions. It's great to know that the snow is falling in the run-up to your holiday, and it might even allow you to book a last-minute weekend when the snow is particularly good. The service is free, and you can unsubscribe whenever you like.

Additional snow and weather information provided, with thanks, by meteo.chamonix.com and the Tourist Office