Chamonix Snow Report: 4th February 2015

With a beginner snowboarder in the mix we choose the Domaine de Balme ski area for the wide cruisey blues and reds that are great for building your confidence on. We found perfectly groomed pistes throughout, so you could easily spend the day zipping around, practising your carving turns. The snow on all the runs couldn't have been better - no ice patches in sight (phew) or rocks peaking out as we did have in December (my newly serviced skis were very grateful) - just smooth snow (lovely jubbly!).

Given that it was such a beautiful day, the pistes were pretty quiet and there were practically no lift queues whatsoever. However, the wind at Le Tour was fairly strong so it may have put a few people off. Always best to wrap up nice and warm if you are heading over there.

Having taken a more cautious approach to off-piste with the current conditions and recent warnings, we only dabbled at the sides of the runs where the powder had started to become a little crusty. There were still soft spots in certain places where you could make smooth lines. (The Avalanche risk rating is now at level 3, skiers and snowboarders are still advised to use caution when going off-piste.)

On Sunday, whilst Megan was having a great time at Les Houches, we were over at Brevent. It snowed constantly - there was no need to search for powder, it was coming directly to you (at last - the snow dance finally paid off!!). You only had to go slightly to the side of the runs to make fresh tracks and have snow up to your knees. Although the visibility wasn't great you could still see what you needed to a good 100 metres in front of you. The Cornu lift was shut for safety reasons throughout the day and at about 4;30pm as we were leaving, the helicopters came in to start blasting certain sections at the top of that lift. I have not been up to Brevent since but I have heard on the grapevine that the conditions were still pretty good there on Tuesday.