Early opening of Chamonix ski areas 2016
Preparations are underway to open Grands Montets
Over the last week we have seen an enormous amount snow fall and more is predicted for the coming week. As always in Chamonix the rumours are rife and people are waiting, not so patiently, for the ski lifts to open.
The Grands Montets facebook page has confirmed that they are preparing the pistes and expecting to open this coming weekend - Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th November 2016. The Lognan cable car will be open from Argentiere to mid station, as well as the Plan Joran gondola, the Bochard gondola and the Marmottons chair lift, from 09:00 to 16:30 giving access to the Bochard and Marmottons pistes.
Following this weekend the same lifts and pistes should be open (weather permitting) on the weekend of 26th and 27th November, then from 3rd to 16th December with the full Chamonix ski area opening from 17th December.
Les Houches ski area, Brevent - Flegere and Le Tour - Vallorcine are due to have partial openings dependant on conditions from 10th December. After the recent snowfall I think we can safely assume that conditions will be perfect for an early season opening.
The recent snowfall has dropped upwards of 80cm at 1800m and certainly more than that above 2000m. Over this last weekend there were plenty of people taking advantage of the Flegere cable car to enjoy the early season snow for snowshoeing, dog walking, ski touring and sledging. Flegere will remain open until the Sunday 27th November 2016.
Le Tour was also busy over the weekend with keen ski tourers and is considerably tracked already...quite amazing as there were no lifts actually open! The area at the bottom of Le Tour was also popular with sledgers and the pisteurs had cleared an area especially for the little ones to enjoy.
Grands Montets was where the last of the powder was to be found by Sunday, with more of a commitment needed to skin up to the mid station. Still plenty of keen skiers have been up there and it looks as though there should be enough snow for the home run to be open next weekend.
The forecast for the coming week is for sunshine today and tomorrow, clouds rolling in on Wednesday and then snow starting on Thursday and carrying on through until the weekend. The rain/snow limit will remain around 1900-2000m, dropping to 1200m on Saturday.
