A person skiing down a snowy slope with mountains in the background

A couple of people skiing down a snowy mountain

A person on a snowboard going up a snowy mountain

A person holding skis in front of a snowy mountain

Chamonix Snow Report: 9th March 2010

featured in Snow report Author Kieran Sharp, Updated 24 October 2014

No more new snow in the valley, but is been getting cold and its been sunny, so the pistes and the park have been pretty hard and not so appealing, most of the stuff just off the piste is crusty and hard but if you look hard enough checking out wind direction, altitude and history of freezing levels etc, you might just be able to work out a good spot no to far off the piste. It good to get on a lot of different aspects of slopes at different altitudes to really feel what's been happening to the snow and can be really worth while if you want to grab a bit of pow when it seems like there is none around!

So with most people moaning about the conditions yesterday we decided to head out in search of a wee bit of pow, making a hike between the resorts of Brevent and Flegere. This hike is a classic and a lot of people do it as its fairly short and always trod in, you also get to experience being out the backside of the resorts for a bit with some amazing views and in total tranquillity. You can start the short hike from the top of the Cornu lift in Brevent where on exiting the lift bear slightly left and you will see next to the rock some foot steps and a rope in place. Here you climb over this ridge which is the trickiest part of the whole tour and does become easier once over the ridge, if you don't have a head for heights and not everyone in your party is feeling comfortable with the first section you can always rope up which will at least give a physiological feeling of safety.

Once over the first section we stopped for a second to admire the views and take in the peace and quiet, the snow round the back was already feeling like we might be in for at least a small amount of powder so our excitement levels where fairly high! There are a number of different directions you could once over this ridge, there are options that bring you back in to the Brevent area via some fairly steep but exciting slopes, you could head down the backside where there are a number of great natural features to hit if you like getting some fresh air with your fresh powder! We choose the slightly easier direction of traversing round in the direction of Flegere to hit one of the mellow bowls which descend in to the resort. It can be a bit tricky on some parts of the traversing walk where the snow isn't so deep and it becomes harder to stomp your feet in, but take your time, make sure you have a good footing and get across slowly but surely.

After the traverse comes the first bowl which is nice and had some fresh powder in it with about 10 tracks down it, and being fairly wide there is definitely the opportunity to score some fresh. However noticing that there weren't really any tracks higher up in to the second bowl we decided to break trail and take the last little slog up to the larger more better second bowl. It can be tricky finding the second bowl when there is no tracks leading the way so if unsure a map and compass is valuable. Once standing at the top of the second bowl we where very excited to find that no one had been down, so we had the whole area to ourselves and took some really nice big speedy turns down the compact powder run, it was a bit heavy in places but we where riding fresh when no one else though it possible, so we where pretty close to living the dream!

After our epic descent we headed up the floria for a quickly where we actually found some more soft snow! So stoked on our day we headed down to the Rhododendrons in Les Praz for a couple of pints of water followed by many beers!

Check out what to do around town once the lifts have closed with our Apres Ski Report - a weekly round up of what's hot and where to party in Chamonix!