Chamonix Snow Report: 19th March 2015

We headed up Les Grands Montets today at the lazy hour of 11am, smug in the knowledge that we would be cruising sunny pistes instead of skidding sideways down sheet ice. And we were right! By the time we arrived the Pierre à Ric homerun had softened nicely and the new gondola made doing a few warm up laps really easy, there were no queues whatsoever - just hop on, hop off, whizz down, repeat.

My other half was celebrating his birthday and at the grand old age of 34 it took a few laps to get the old pins limbered up before we ventured up the Herse chairlift. That and the fact that he was riding a teleboard; a bizarre contraption that is a cross between a monoski and a snowboard, with telemark bindings thrown in for good measure. Apparently (according to him) it’s the best fun you can have on snow, but is a bit of a liability on hard pistes so soft spring conditions are perfect.

The runs higher up might have been pretty firm but there were no actual icy patches that we came across, if your skis have decent edges you should find it quite grippy, if a little on the fast side. Once we got down to about 2500m there was a lovely transition into dry chalky snow that gradually got softer and softer as we swooshed down towards the Plan Joran and Lognan lifts. We did a few loops of the Bochard, coming down the front towards Marmottons or heading down the back towards Lavancher - there were a few cheeky rocks poking through on the approach to the Retour Pendant chairlift but nothing too dodgy.

We finished the afternoon with a birthday beer on the terrace at the top of the Lognan cable car and then did one last blast down the home run, which although very soft wasn’t at all chopped up or heavy - just pleasantly bouncy!

The weather forecast for the rest of the week is bright and sunny, with the chance of a sprinkling of fresh snow high up towards the tail end of the weekend.