Chamonix Snow Report: 25th February 2015

Another 20cm of snow overnight nicely topped up the fresh that fell during the weekend and with the lack of queues to start the day thanks to the new Plan Joran lift we headed to Grand Montets to appreciate the novelty of getting straight up the hill with no waiting.

Traversing directly to the magic forest/foret des jeurs we arrived just as the Pendent Retour chairlift started turning, making the choice of whether to take the left or right edge pretty easy. Down and left we went, with no tracks to distract us from bouncing though the fresh snow. A few cm of snow had fallen on the cat track since they pisted it, but not enough to slow our skate and walk to the chairlift.

Seeing as it had been so good on the first lap, we figured why not try and other. And another.
After a couple of hours we felt we'd had the best of the riding we were going to in the magic forest and took a long lap down to Argentiere. Although not particularly extreme by Chamonix standards, there are still some real dangers in the couloirs and trees that separate the pistes in the Grand Montets area and the village. As we were about to drop into Couloir de la Jeureumaz we had to pull aside to let two pisteurs past. Fortunately they were just out "checking the snow" but it's still not uncommon to see lost families needing rescued around here having got stuck above a cliff band.

The couloir had been skied already, but was far from tracked out and we got great snow all the way back to the gondola. Keen for some more, we headed back for another lap to the road. This time we got clean undisturbed snow for the whole descent, with only a few sections needing advanced level bushwhacking skills to negotiate. Worth it for the great snow in between. To cap it off, we arrived at the road just as a bus was driving along, the driver pulling in between the stops to get us straight back to the lifts for yet another lap.

There wasn't much piste skiing happening for the group today, and to be honest when we were on the pistes they weren't in great condition with the fresh snow forming hard to see moguls and a surprising number of icy patches in between. After grooming they should be much better, but if piste is your thing you'd be better getting up the hill sharpish in the morning before things get too cut up.

Looking forward to the rest of the week there seems to be yet more snow on the horizon, with snowy disturbances predicted for Friday and Sunday, but before that we should have a couple of sunnier days to appreciate the fresh snow above the tree line.

As ever, bear in mind the fragile snowpack this year and heed the advice of professionals.