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Chamonix Snow Report: 9th December 2008

featured in Snow report Author Tom Wilson-North, Updated

I just got down from Les Grands Montets - and the snow was awesome. But let me fine-tune that for you a little, since 'awesome' is so many different things to so many different people.

Grands Montets is the only resort open in the valley right now. The pistes were smooth, consistent and firm. Thanks to the heavy snowfall we've had over the last fortnight, the piste bashers have left long ridges at the side of the trails, which create excellent natural jumps, scoops and hips that throw you into the off-piste along the edges.

Off-piste, conditions are slightly more variable. We've had a lot of sun over the last few days, which has done a fine job of topping up the sun tans of the town's pasty seasonnaires, but unfortunately isn't so great for the snow. An off-piste slope in the sun gets warmed throughout the day, and then - as soon as night falls and the temperature drops - freezes over. The surface gets crystalline and brittle, just like ice cream which is left out for a while then refrozen.

The result of this cycle is bouncy, hard snow in sunny areas. The secret is to keep to shaded slopes, which don't get quite so warm and hence stay soft, fluffy and dry. We found a few today around the Tabé chair.

The Top cablecar and the Herse chair are not open yet, although the latter is virtually tracked out already thanks to people traversing over from the top of the Bochard. I think that the Top will be fairly special once it opens; one can only assume that the mountain ops folks are waiting for the glacier's snow bridges to strengthen before unleashing every freerider for thirty miles onto them.

The run of the day today was, surprisingly, the Pierre-A-Ric homerun just after one pm. It was a pleasure to be one of a pack of snowboarders tearing down the deserted run, boardsliding ledges, jumping rollers, ollie-ing slow signs and laying down enormous, flat euro-carves on the deserted courdroy. That's what being up on the mountain is about...having a lot of fun.

It's just started to snow again as I write, and the weather says it's going to do so until Thursday. It's the best start to a season I can remember up here in the high country; I'll leave you with a bunch of pictures from Le Planet the other day that illustrate just how much snow there is up here right now.

Tom

Stats

Avalanche Risk
  • Level 2

Snow Report
  • 0

  • Total Pistes: 75

  • Alt. Resort: 1972

  • Alt. Summit: 2800

  • Alt. Last Snow: 1050

  • High Temp.: -3

  • Alt. High Temp.: 1050