Chamonix Snow Report: 22nd February 2015

I think we can all agree that this season has become about making the most of each and every situation, regardless of the weather, the light, snow conditions, busy slopes and busy buses. It's not been the powder filled year we were hoping for and now that the February holidays are well and truly upon us there are even more people fighting for the snow.

But the last four days have been some of the best of this season for me...despite all of the issues listed above!

Thursday began with huge promise; incredible blue skies and sunshine greeted us as we made our way through the Mont Blanc tunnel to do a bit of powder hunting in Courmayeur. Sadly that came to an abrupt end as I realised in the car park of the Val Veny cable car that I had forgotten my snowboard boots - rookie mistake!!! So after a lovely walk around Courmayeur and a delicious Italian coffee in the sun (looking at the off piste run we had been planning to do..), we drove back through the tunnel to do a bit of sight seeing up the Aiguille du Midi and enjoy a casual lap from the mid-station down to town. This was a surprisingly fun run down, albeit on windblown snow, crust, ice and small (you could say tiny!) pockets of powder, huge moguls and finally the thinly covered run out. But being just about the only people on the hill, apart from a few random dog walkers, was a wonderful feeling! 

So on Friday we decided to be a bit more predictable and with the sunshine beating down again we went to Grands Montets to join the crowds for some piste laps. The pistes turned out to be bullet proof, and certainly not much fun on a snowboard, but venturing off piste the snow was softer and although completely tracked out it was surprisingly fun to ride. Alternating between the Herse chair and the Bochard bubble we managed to find some great routes down the mountain and didn't ever need to wait more than a minute or so to get on either lift. The snow was challenging to ride, but with sunshine and great visibility this wasn't really a problem. Once our legs had given up on us we retired to La Herse bar for some live music and to work on our goggle tans!

With the weather forecast to close in on Saturday afternoon we opted to escape the crowds and the probable flat light of the resort pistes and made our way over to Buet to ski tour up to Chalet Loriaz. The skin track follows the walking trail up through the forest so it is well protected from the elements and gave us the option to turn back easily if the weather came in quicker than we were expecting. With flat light and minimal snow cover on the track up we negotiated some tricky icy sections and enjoyed the wider sections of track for some banter and chat between us. This was my first split board outing of the season so despite the conditions being less than perfect I thoroughly enjoyed the exercise, the calm environment and the change of scenery over in the Vallorcine valley. The route down however was a very different story - an icy, bullet proof 4x4 track that zig zagged its way back down to the carpark. I have to admit that I did end up walking a fair bit of this as it is a tricky path for a snowboard and especially in these conditions. I caught my edge one too many times and ended up with very bruised knees!

But a coffee and cake in Tete a The in Argentiere just as the snow started to fall on our way home, more than made up for the difficult descent - cake can cure most things.

And finally the snow fell and the powder arrived for a bluebird Sunday! Making our way to Grands Montets on the near empty train you could have been fooled into thinking that the slopes were going to be empty...but no. Despite this the queues were not so bad, the visibility was great, the snow was fantastic and there were some rather large grins on a lot of faces! There was around 40cm of fresh snow on top of the previously tracked out, mogulled base, so although not bottomless powder there was certainly enough to have a lot of fun. Hard work on the legs, probably more so because of the tour on Saturday, I lasted about 3 hours before I decided to call it a day. This coincided with the clouds coming in and the light flattening out so was the perfect time to leave. Although the off piste was great fun, the pistes running back down to mid-station were sheet ice between huge moguls and combined with the flat light of the afternoon they became less and less fun. The home run was challenging with the added difficultly of avoiding the crowds of skiers making their way down. But all of this wasn't enough to ruin what had been a fantastic powder day at Grands Montets! (Sorry for the lack of photos...I was having too much fun!)

And what better way to round off a long weekend of skiing and snowboarding than to enjoy a good old fashioned Sunday roast at Monkey.

With more snow falling today and forecast for the rest of the week I can't wait until next weekend when I can head out again and make the most of what the Chamonix Valley has to offer.