A group of people standing in front of a building that says la provence

A group of people skiing down a snow covered slope

People skiing down a snowy slope with mountains in the background

A snowboard is laying on the ground in front of a sign that says la vette houches

Skiers walking in front of a building that says la premiere

Chamonix Snow Report: 8th February 2007

featured in Snow report Author Ellie Mahoney, Chamonix Editor Updated 26 May 2016

When we woke up this morning it was raining in Chamonix! But, thankfully within ten minutes it had changed into snow and was dumping the big fat flakes that we've been missing. It put down a few centimetres within the next thirty minutes and was snowing like it really meant it. There had been some avalanche control blasts earlier in the morning that rattled our walls so we knew that there was must be some new snow higher up.

With the weather so cloudy and the snow still falling we headed up to Les Houches as it's often a good bet on poor weather days. Almost all of the lifts were open there today unlike some of the main Chamonix areas, which, due to avalanche risk, can be very limited in what they can open when there has been a lot of fresh snow. The other advantage of Les Houches is that because nearly all of its pistes are cut through trees and forests the visibility is about as good as it can be in a whit out. For Les Houches, make sure you buy a Mont Blanc unlimited lift pass, as the Chamonix le pass doesn't cover the area.

We went up by the new Prarion lift, which is very good: no queues to go up and the 8-person cabins have plenty of room to take your snowboards inside with you. Well done Les Houches: the old lift was terrible by comparison, cramped, slow and outdated. One thing to be aware of with Les Houches is that you're not going to have a good experience there if you don't like drag lifts as the place is littered with them and some are a bit tricky if you're not that confident. Some of the guys in our group had a little trouble with one particular lift (Plancerts) and ended up hiking back up the hill.

Rather predictably though the snow was very, very good: even orgasmic, according to one of my riding companion's exclamations after our first run down to the bottom of the Cha draglift. There was around 20cm of fresh powder on top of a wet base with no ice, not bad! There were even a few nice bumps and jumps at sides of the pistes, it seemed like we were the only ones venturing off of the pistes too as most of the other skiers and snowboarders were aged under10 and confined to skiing in snake formation. We tried the Crozat chair but it was closed, we had a look down from the top too and it looked good: with lots of fresh snow and untracked, it was very tempting. But we decided not to head down under the barriers as we'd more than likely not be allowed on the chair back up even though it was running.

The Plancerts draglift had some decent snow too, but it wasn't like the A-grade powder we'd ridden earlier. The piste had plenty of deep, chopped-up snow covering it until the very bottom where it thinned out a little. The snow was heavy and wet and not the most effortless stuff to ride on, but still it was fresh, untracked at the sides and better than the icy offerings of late, so basically good stuff. The view from Plancerts was pretty special too, as the clouds cleared we could see down to Sallanches and Domancy in the valley below, it looked very green!

As the afternoon wore on the weather started to close in again and as we were leaving it was looking properly wintry up there with heavy snow falling and a driving wind. It's stopped snowing now down here in Chamonix as I write this but there is more snow forecast and the weather feels much more unsettled here now, so at last things are looking better.

Check out what to do around town once the lifts have closed with our all new Apres Ski Report - a weekly round up of what's hot and where to party in Chamonix!

Useful Information
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.

Useful Links
Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research
French Avalanche Research Institute
Meteo France - Mountain weather and avalanche conditions bulletins (in French)
Henry's Avalanche Talk - popular avalanche training sessions based in French Alps as well as translation of current avalanche conditions
PisteHors.com - Backcountry Skiing and Snowboarding News in English for the French Alps. Excellent coverage of avalanche safety and advice

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