Chamonix High Mountain Report: 26th March 2015

Although this would lead you to believe that there would be more snow up high, sadly this wasn't the case. With the clouds parting up high today (Thursday 26th March) I headed up to the top of Grands Montets and rode a measly couple of inches of snow on top of a very firm base down the backside. Hardly the spring dumps we are used to here in the Chamonix Valley. Oh well, there are plenty of other activities to occupy ourselves with here. The Cosmiques arête has been mobbed with climbers the past few days who want to escape the variable snow conditions and enjoy some fairly mellow climbing in calm conditions and sunny weather.

Other areas of the Massif have seen more activity, with a lot of climbers and skiers gathering at the Grands Montets top ticket in previous days. I was there a couple of times last week and have been exploring the whole Argentiere basin from the South West couloir of the Aiguille de L’Amone which meant skiing in very spring-like deep slush. Another trip up the Argentiere basin saw me and resident Swede Jesper Petersson traverse Les Courtes via its NE face and skiing the iconic Couloir Angelique, which cuts a deep line down its vast south face. This was a huge undertaking for me and one of the most technical descents I have made in the massif. Finishing in the Telefre basin we had to ski down the 'James Bond' track back to the Planards ski area in town, not recommended as there is little snow cover now! We had to do it out of necessity as Jespers ski pass is now somewhere down the NE face...

One of my trusty ski partners and local bad-ass James Sleigh took on a solo tour of Col du Belvedere a few days ago. He managed to find some nice steep chalk but also managed to gather some snow reports from the Berard valley (the backside of Flegere); he reported ‘no snow’! It gets very thin down the bottom of that valley in good years and this dry year means that it is in a worse state that normal. Bring trainers if you are planning any Aiguille Rouge ski tours in the coming weeks.

Skiing the sunny side of the valley a couple of days in the Brevent-Flegere resorts has been fun and very quiet. There is still good cover on almost all of the pistes and it has been getting very soft and slushy around midday on the warmer days. With no lift queues in the weeks before the Easter holidays start it's the best time to go up. I only had to wait on lifts once, and that unfortunately was inside the lift! Due to an unfortunate parapenter who had managed to somehow get himself tangled up in the Plan Praz cables, myself and a couple of friends were stuck in the bubble on a scorching day for over an hour, not the best start to a ski day. You can read the Chamonet report on that incident here.

Thats all I have to report on at the moment unfortunately. Fingers crossed for some more snow in the coming days and for more big days up the mountain. These spring snowfalls could bring with them some good skiing conditions up high, stay posted for more high mountain reports and more big adventures in the Mont Blanc Massif.

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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.