Chamonix Snow Report: 8th January 2008
Its times like this that make a snow reporter's life interesting. The last few of days have seen substantial variations in, the wind, rain/snow, and temperature. It was warm and pouring down with rain in the valley yesterday morning. Today dawned cold and bright, and a little icy under foot.
The town seems very quiet now after the holidays, however by mid morning, the car park at Flegere was reasonably full, but thankfully there was no lift queue. A quick blast around the Flegere pistes showed them to be in almost perfect condition, flat, soft, and grippy, with a thick layer of soft packed powder over the firm base- and empty. There is the occasional section of harder packed snow where the wind has been at work. The red Lachenal piste is soft and unpisted.
The off piste is a mixed bag, low down you can see the effects of the rain, as you go a little higher there is a sort of, refrozen slabby crust. Above about 2300m, it improves markedly, going from slightly heavy, to lighter but choppy powder.
The beginners' areas at both Flegere and Brevent are in very good condition. Despite the Chamonix image as an adrenalin sports capital, I have always maintained that it is a superb area for beginners, with a wide choice of lifts and pistes both in the valley and on the mountain, suitable for complete beginners and improvers. Brevent is a good example. There is a nursery area with a flat, easy angled green piste served by an easy Poma. Plus the whole area between Flegere and Brevent can be explored on Blue runs.
The Charles Bozon black piste at Brevent was reopened today after being closed for the last couple of days due to the wind and possible Avalanche risk. The Charles Bozon is named after a Chamonix valley hero. A multi Olympic Skiing medal winner he finally became world champion in a race in Chamonix, in 1962. He was tragically killed two years later in a mountaineering accident, on the Vert.
With the additional altitude, the snow on the Bozon was as good as I have seen it, the pisteurs have been at work on the bottom section and the “side” piste is a sort of, Cornish clotted cream, you know the sort of thing, creamy powder, with a few lumps, but still lovely. The true off piste descents from Brevent have extra signage warning of avalanche danger and seemed to be untouched.
On the way back over to Flegere, the red Charlanon pistes was sporting a few of the small icy lumps know in the US as Death Cookies, they are great detectors of a defective technique!
It would be hard to say with any accuracy exactly how much new snow has fallen over the past couple of days, as particularly at lower altitudes it will have fallen as rain. I would estimate that at above 2300m it must be about 30cm.
The avalanche level posted at Brevent/Flegere has been reduced to 3, considerable. The forecast is mixed with a possibility of snow showers tomorrow and again on Saturday.
Useful Information
Useful Links
Additional snow and weather information provided, with thanks, by meteo.chamonix.com and the Tourist Office
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
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.
Stats
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Level 3
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0
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Total Pistes: 75
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Alt. Resort: 2000
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Alt. Summit: 2700
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Alt. Last Snow: 2700
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High Temp.: 3
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Alt. High Temp.: 1050
