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Great snow for opening weekend of Grands Montets

Winter 2016-17 has officially started in Chamonix

featured in Snow report Author Alison Shayler, Chamonix Reporter Updated

Early snow has prompted the Compagnie du Mont Blanc to open some of the Chamonix ski area sooner than expected, so we were there to check it out.

The weather forecast for this weekend was not very promising; snow on Saturday morning (good), clouds and wind for the rest of the weekend (not so good). Although we were going to go up one way or the other, no matter what the forecast; it’s the first weekend of the season, you have to!

Happily for us, the forecast was unduly pessimistic and once the snow had done its thing, the skies cleared up beautifully, leaving us with a glorious opening weekend up at Les Grands Montets.

grands montets in chamonix

The heavy snowfall that we’d had earlier in the week and the little flurries that fell on Saturday left us plenty of fresh snow to tire out our unprepared legs on. After two runs down the Bochard and I felt like I’d run the best part of a marathon. The snow was a bit scraped and icy towards the bottom of the Marmottons but this was only due to the amount of traffic it was getting - pop off the sides and there was plenty of nice soft snow to be had.

With only two pistes at Les Grands Montets being open - Bochard and Marmottons - it was a bit of a squeeze in places. It seemed that the whole of Chamonix was on the slopes and hitting the same part of the mountain, bottle-necking at the same points.

However, the snow was good and the pistes are in pretty good condition for mid-November; well-covered with only a few little tips of rock poking through on the most well-used sections. Plenty of people were venturing off-piste and looked to be finding fresh powder without straying too far - none of us had avalanche gear with us though so we played it safe.

a ski area in chamonix

By mid-afternoon everything was getting pretty chopped up and decent moguls were forming; our poor legs were starting to feel the need for some sort of restorative therapy, preferably in a liquid form. So after the first ski of the season comes… the first apres-ski of the season!

Being November, nowhere is doing full-on messy apres yet but there was a good little buzz in The Office Bar when we called in for a few beers. You could easily spot the ones who, like us, had been for their first slide today by the grins plastered across their faces.

The rest of the valley will be opening up over the next few weeks, some areas earlier than scheduled if the snowy weather continues! Keep an eye on our regular Chamonix Snow Reports and sign up for our Dump Alerts to get the latest info on snow and weather conditions.

Blue skies, fresh snow, sunshine, skiing and beer with good pals… big smiles all round. Here’s to the start of another great season!

Stats

Snow Report
  • Alt. Resort: 1252m

  • Alt. Summit: 3275m

  • Alt. Last Snow: 1000m

Location

Map of the surrounding area