Chamonix Snow Report: 9th February 2005
Today was another mild, sunny day with snow melting in town. The temperature got up to +7°c on our balcony in Chamonix. The nights have been cold though: it was -6°c here this morning. Consequently this has given us an almost spring-like freeze/thaw situation with the snow hard and icy in the mornings but softening up quite nicely where the sun gets on it later in the day and the temperature rises. We still have 60cm of snow in our garden and the cold winds of last week have gone.
Yesterday at Le Tour the peak season was upon us: the crowded pistes and queues made the place feel a little too busy for comfort. It was near impossible to find a space in the main car park at midday. The queues waiting to go up the Autannes chair were pretty long so we headed around to the back of Le Tour to escape them. There were some queues there too – the first of the season that I had noticed for the Tete de Balme chair – although the waits weren't too long. At the moment, on piste you need eyes in the back of your head to avoid collisions especially along the Esserts run where you have a combination of novices traversing slowly and very fast people straight lining it. We headed down to the bottom of the new Vallorcine gondola just to check it out, and get away from it all. Our timing was perfect as just as we got on it the lift broke down. Things didn't look like they were going to get fixed anytime soon so we soaked up the sun with a beer or two from the restaurant down there, which was doing a roaring trade thanks to the lift failure. About an hour later it started running again, just after we'd given up all hope and we're about to catch the train back. All in all we had a lucky escape but it wasn't so good for the poor people stuck on the lift.
Up at Brevent today there were a great many very sensible people making the most of the sun and warm weather by having picnics and long lunches. With some snow forecast for the weekend it's good to appreciate the sun while we have it. For some reason it didn't seem so busy today: it had a more laid back feel than Le Tour yesterday. There were quite a few parapenters up at Brevent today lazily floating around on the thermals. The sun has taken its toll on the snow with the Variante Charlanon run looking very patchy. The sun catches this moguled, steep slope for most of the day and has really given it a hammering (one of my housemates calls it ‘that bloody black run'). The Cornu is holding up reasonably well but is starting to develop a few stones showing through here and there; the worst section is lower down just where it continues down to the lifts from the cat track section. With a bit of luck, the snowfall this weekend will sort out these patches, and also give us some good off piste to play in once again as I'm starting to get powder withdrawal symptoms.
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
Additional snow and weather information provided, with thanks, by meteo.chamonix.com and the Tourist Office
Stats
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Level 2
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0
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Total Pistes: 80
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Alt. Resort: 2000
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Alt. Summit: 3000
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Alt. Last Snow: 1042
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High Temp.: 7
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Alt. High Temp.: 1042