Chamonix Snow Report: 8th May 2006

It wasn't the sunny beach party atmosphere of last season's end; even the plywood palm trees weren't able to dispel the damp grey feel. Whilst it was raining at Lognan, it was snowing at the top of Bochard all the way down to the top of the Marmotton. The snow on the Bochard piste was very good, and it still has good cover with no rocks coming through unlike at the end of last season when it became quite rocky. The only problem today was the warm temperature, which by the afternoon was making the snow fairly sticky, especially off-piste where it was proper soup.

The action today was definitely at Lognan – either watching the idiots getting drenched on the water slide or joining in with the idiots. I was feeling quite wet enough with the rain that was falling intermittently so gave the wall a go instead. It was deceptively tricky to get right and with the sticky snow you needed a long run in to actually get up the thing. However, it was addictive enough for a few goes and the desire not to look like a fool on it took over enough to see me try it until I could ride away.

The cloud seemed to put pay to the usual antics of jumping out of helicopters; I saw just a couple of people with parachutes walking around so I must have missed them jumping. With the cloud as it was it would have been hard to see anything. There were plenty of heinous fashion crimes on display, as the theme of the freeride day was ‘back to the eighties'. Dodgy music was pumping from the sound system and there was even a contest rewarding those in the tackiest of day-glo ski suits.

In general it was a more subdued closing day than in previous seasons, partly because of the weather on the day and because there seemed to be less in the way of special events going on. The season itself has been a fantastic one for us. We've had some of the best snow in years: it was a good early season; the worst time was the dry spell in January, but after that February and March were superb with masses of snow falling day after day. It left us with plenty of base to see us well into May.

Thank you to everyone for reading the reports throughout the winter and especially for all of your emails of encouragement. See you in December and have a great summer.

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