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Chamonix High Mountain Report: 22nd January 2015

Fresh snow means great fun up high, but conditions are still not ideal!

featured in Snow report Author Joel Evans, Chamonix High Mountain Reporter Updated

With the Christmas crowds gone home for another year it’s nice to get out and enjoy some quieter skiing. Normally in mid January we are indulging in deep, fresh snow, but with the current conditions we have been spending a lot of time scouring the Internet for the most optimistic snow forecast. However, there has been some good skiing out there.

Last Friday I headed out with Niclas and Nicklas from SOLE bootlab. We only had a few hours and were limited with distance, being in town we got our boots on and started the long walk up Brevent hill. The choice for our lunch break ski was the classic ENSA couloir that drops down from Brevent top ticket. There is a short rappel into the couloir (or optional down climb using the in-situ rope) but after this we found several hundred meters of tracked soft snow. Depending on how much you like your skis you can either walk the last 10 mins to the Savoy slope or scrape your way the whole way down!

Saturday was the day we were all waiting for. Bucket loads of fresh snow and a clear sky. With people rushing to their favourite spots I headed to Brevent again with friends Sleigh, Tim and Iris, in the hunt for fresh, deep snow. We joined the first 50 people heading straight to the Autel face. The excitement could be felt all over the mountain with people skiing as fast as they could to get straight back to the lift to do it all again! We smashed out a couple of deep big faces then with the growing number of people traversing to Autel we decided on another ENSA. Just as we arrived we saw 4 people dropping in, my face dropped as we knew we wouldn’t open it (be the first ones down!), but then again 4 people can only make 4 tracks... It was much better then the previous week and we could ski all the way down with minimal rock hit.

After a quick spot of lunch and gear grabbing, Sleigh and I found ourselves in the Midi queue heading to a relatively untracked Grand Envers. With deep snow at Brevent we knew that going another 1500m up, it could only get deeper! We made quick work of the skiing and had a few face shots in the 70cm of fresh. However, there are lots of big crevasses up there at the moment and it could do with filling in some more before any carefree cruising can be done. Skiing all the way to the Montenver stairs we soon remembered what 420 steps after a long days skiing felt like… A large beer was waiting at Elevation and it tasted so good. It was worth the wait.

The powder has been tracked out in all the resorts over the past week but we are still on the hunt for some fresh turns. On Wednesday we decided to go over the back of the Aiguille Rouge to have a look how things are shaping up. The initial plan was the Keyhole at the top of the Berard valley, but before we could get our skins of after the first traverse we could already see that the strong north wind was loading all of our approach slopes with fresh wind slabs. Time to bail and take plan B. Starting the approach up to the Col du Berard the snow on the normal high traverse started to crack around me, so we opted for the safer route on the valley floor then going straight up the face to avoid any avalanche prone slopes. Once at the col we could see all the way down to Buet. The snow looked good and despite the relatively flat light we could open up some big turns in cold, untracked powder. The exit to Buet is currently on the left bank of the river and does include some very tight skiing through the trees but it is now possible to ski all the way to the Buet hotel, where you can grab a well deserved beer. Trains are running every hour and it was a nice way to return back to the car at Flegere, No more crowded buses full of holiday tourists.

Things up high are still not looking amazing. It was very windy today and although people were venturing out of the Midi I would not recommend it until the bigger holes on the glacier have seen more snow. I have heard of one fatality this week on the Grand Envers and with the strong winds dying down over the weekend I would leave it a few more days before heading back out onto the Glacier. There are lots of possibilities for touring up the Argentiere basin and in the Aiguille Rouge that can offer safer skiing and smiles.

Follow Joel's blog for more news and information from the high mountains of Chamonix

NB: Off piste skiing and mountaineering are dangerous. The opinions expressed in these articles are very much time and condition specific and the content is not intended in any way to be a substitute for hiring a mountain guide, undergoing professional mountaineering training and/or the individual's own back country decision making.

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