Great skiing at Le Tour & Megeve this week

The skies cleared up nicely for some excellent skiing from Sunday onwards with almost all of the lifts in the Chamonix area open for the first time this winter.

Some friends had skied at Le Tour on Sunday reporting good snow conditions on the front side of the mountain but the Tete de Balme chairlift on the back side hadn't opened all day. So on Sunday Colin and I headed up for 9am first lifts with hopes that it would be running, but with ski touring equipment packed in case it didn't. Lucky that we did in the end, as it wasn't scheduled to open until 11am. Instead of lapping the previous day's tracked snow we skinned up from the Autannes chairlift through Col de Balme and then to the Tete de Balme peak in about half an hour, fully layered-up with helmets and goggles too thanks to temperatures pushing -20C, which warmed us up ...kind of.

Off the peak the snow was quite wind-scoured so we took the safe route directly to the top of the chairlift before skiing down the access piste then entering the safer angles of the off piste areas just to the right of the lift where only four lift staff and patrollers' tracks could be seen. It wasn't the deepest snow by any means, but lovely smooth boot-top powder none-the-less for some very fun long turns flat-out all the way to the lift. Our timing was perfect for the 10.45am opening, where the lifties congratulated us on being their first customers of the winter!

Four more laps followed, without much traffic at all for the first two so we didn't even need to stray too far from the lift line to find untouched snow and even when more tracks appeared there were still plenty of powder stashes to easily find between the trees.  We headed home quite early to save our legs for the next day, with the upper mountain pistes in absolutely perfect condition but the homerun quite icy in places; beginners and low-intermediates should take the gondola down to be safe.

On Tuesday we fancied a little ski touring to get away from the crowds completely, and decided on a trip to Combloux/Megeve for a little help from the lifts too. I've skied and mountain biked the area quite a lot but had been told that there are a lot of short but worthwhile ski tours from the lifts. Route planning is fairly easy for experienced tourers and I know a few mountain guides who take clients out in this area regularly.

This is part of the Portes du Mont Blanc ski area which is covered by Chamonix's Mont Blanc Unlimited ski pass along with Courmayeur and Evasion Mont Blanc (Saint Gervais/Megeve/Les Contamines) but activation of your ski pass is required (only once) beforehand and only possible at the Saint Gervais or Megeve ticket offices through the season.

We drove 25 minutes to Combloux to start the day, taking lifts up to Sommet des Salles then a quick 350m tour through Col de Jaillet and up to Le Petit Croisse Baulet. After checking out the snow on the way up and watching one other group ski NW toward Giettaz we decided to ski the E face where we found very nice boot-top powder leading into some fun gullies.  We skied out towards the resort pistes and made it OK with a bit of bushwhacking and sidestepping but next time I would skin back up towards Col de Jaillet after the main descent instead for an easier exit.

Another very quick skin and descent between the Christomet and Eperon areas got us more fresh snow on a mellow face and then some very fun turns in the clearings between the deciduous trees, with an almost Japanese feel (so I'm told; I'll make it there one day).  A little more route-finding brought us out to the lifts then we cruised home on perfect pistes once again with no crowds at all.

I'd definitely recommend the area for some lower-risk ski touring compared to Chamonix's higher and steeper terrain (avalanche risk has dropped from "high" to "considerable" now) and it would make a very nice introduction to ski touring with the help of a guide without the traffic seen on Chamonix's classic routes like those in the Aiguille Rouges. Piste skiers will also be treated to wider and quieter slopes than those the Chamonix Valley and the views towards the Mont Blanc Massif are pretty incredible.

No new snow is forecast until around 28th January but there's still plenty of soft snow out there to find and excellent cover on the pistes so get out and enjoy it!

Follow more from Lorne in his ski blog.  

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.