Chamonix Snow Report: 8th February 2009
After a couple of weeks of precious nothing from the snow gods, the white stuff's falling again up here in Chamonix. The storm started gently Friday night, with heavy fog that slowly turned into drizzle up here at 1000m. Soon, the drizzle turned into snowflakes and before long giant dollops of the snow were pelting my terrace. It was as if someone had turned a giant bag of wet prawn crackers upside-down above the town.
Like the last dump, the snow under 2000m is distinctly claggy, with the consistency of cream cheese. It's fine when it's fresh, making zippy noises under your edges as you fly through it, but when it's been cut up by eager skiers and riders - of which there are many right now - the snow turns from cream cheese to gloopy school-dinner mashed potato, which is bouncier, firmer, messier and a lot harder on the legs. The way to avoid the potatoes (!), quite simply, is to ride higher. At Brevent, take the stomach-churning cable car to the top and ride the Charles Bozon black run. At Flégère, ride the Index chair and then take the Floria drag lift...and if you spot a local clicking in at the top, ask them about the "Golf Course" secret spot. At Les Grands Montets, run laps of the Bochard gondola, dropping into the Lavancher bowl if you feel like it. And finally, at Le Tour, head over the back to the Tete de Balme chairlift. The lines under the lift here stay pretty sheltered for a while so that's going to be your best chance of getting freshies there.
Weather-wise, it's shaping up to be a couple of days of fairly cloudy weather - your best bet in flat light is to stick to the trees. The Magic Forest at Grands Montets...now one of the valley's worst kept secrets...will be brilliant, as will the trees on the lower part of La Flégère. Trees help out in whiteouts as the shapes give you great points of reference at take away that 'floating in a cloud' feeling. Check the Chamonet weather report for the latest info.
Ski-outs are open over the length of the valley, most importantly at Brevent and Flegere. It's great to be able to ski down to town from the resorts; normally here in Chamonix, once you're done riding, you have to queue for a lift and download to valley level. Sure, the runs are a little patchy in places - especially in the big corners, where everybody slows down and scrapes the snow to the outside - but it's a small price to pay for a good end to a good day. In fact, thinking about it, it's an irony that the first year that the new, smooth, super-fast Brevent queue-busting gondola is running...there's no need to download on it!
Tonight I'm heading to the Jekyll bar for comedy night. The Jekyll has been a Chamonix institution for years in different iterations; from restaurant to wannabe club, it's now settled into a gastro-lounge groove, fairly unique in town. The food is good - with a funky austro-german influence - and the ambience chilled. There are no windows so it feels more like a snug hideaway than the bigger Belgos-style bars of the town centre. Jekyll's stand-up comedy show formula remains unchanged with lots of UK funnies stopping by Chamonix and tieing a couple of gigs into a a week of skiing. Just a word of warning if you drop by...don't heckle!
As I write the snow has just stopped falling; I'm riding Brevent tomorrow to see just how much of this stuff has come down. It's going to be a soft-snow, flat-light, yellow-lens day of good times...bring it on!
See you in the lift line,
Tom
Stats
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Level 3
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1
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Total Pistes: 75
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Alt. Resort: 1972
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Alt. Summit: 3233
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Alt. Last Snow: 2800
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High Temp.: -8
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Alt. High Temp.: 1050
