Chamonix Snow Report: 9th January 2013

However, I did expect resort to be a little busier than it is because it was Russian Christmas and New Year earlier in the week and Chamonix is now very firmly on the Russian skiers map these days. Don’t get me wrong, there are still loads of Russian visitors around – you can tell by some of the truly smashing ski suits that are being paraded around the slopes – not readily available in these parts and it’s amazing how many of them seem to be ex-members of the national team.... In several cases though, I think an Arctic fox or two may have paid rather dearly for the fashion statement :O/

Since the weekend the beautiful weather has continued and although it’s been a bit brisk in the valley, up on the slopes it’s been positively spring like. At Le Tour yesterday, it was 2 degrees in the car park, 8 degrees at Charamillon and 5 degrees at the Tete de Balme. It was just beautiful, although I did think that the topless guy having a picnic with his mates right at the very top might have been being just a tad keen, although to be fair, there wasn’t a breath of wind so he probably did manage to top up his tan!

Snow wise, we haven’t have any more snow fall since New Years Day and the pistes are showing evidence that they’ve been skied pretty hard for the last two weeks. Over on the Vallorcine side, the snow was fairly scratchy in places but it was completely deserted meaning that it was almost possible to do a top to bottom circuit of the Tete de Balme chair on the fabulously cruisy blues without putting in a single turn! Down in the valley on the Swiss side, you could see the cloud hanging low as it has been in our valley a couple of days recently. Going about your business in town and it been a bit cold and damp, but up on the hill it’s been blue sky and sunshine all the way.

Down the front side of Le Tour, the southern aspect combined with no wind and the recent all day sunshine has worked its magic by 1pm and the slopes soften up a treat. It doesn’t degenerate into the slushiness of spring but the Solonges piste certainly had a nice inch or two of sugariness on top that made fast wide turns too hard to resist. The red and blues off the Autannes chairlift are still remaining pretty firm right to the last lift though and the run all the way back to the car park switches from sugary grippyness to sections of hardpack in the blink of an eye so you need to watch your speed.

Talking of speed, you can currently see the beginnings of the brand new BMW timed slalom course on your left as you take the chair up the front of Le Tour. The start and finish posts are in place and the course should be open to everyone as of mid-Jan. From what I could see “nous filmons votre descent” (Franglais-tastic!) and then you can download your filmed descent of the course via the BMW xDrive website

Over on Flegere, there is a full on speed test course to the left of La Chavannes for you to test your metal on. This is also part of the BMW xDrive Cup so a bit of fun and something different to try when you’re having a cruise round the valley.

The sunshine is taking a break for the next few days as the cloud returns bringing with it fresh snow down to 600m by Friday. No need to worry about an alarm call in the morning, hopefully we’re going to be woken up by the snow plough for the next little while!