Chamonix Snow Report: 1st February 2008

Friday was another grey morning, with cloud down to 1500m and a forecast of snow for the afternoon. When the weather is like this in the valley there are a couple of options to make the best of the day. Courmayeur through the tunnel is one; Les Houches just down the valley is the other, both have in abundance what the other areas in the valley are a little short of, trees. We headed to Les Houches, and riding up on the modern fast Parion gondola it was obvious that it was very quiet on the slopes.

Les Houches is relatively low with all the riding and skiing in the range 1900m -1000m, and I was expecting the snow to be icy and generally poor. However the conditions while certainly mixed were not all bad. The Kandahar had been watered for last weekends race and was particularly icy on the racing line, the steep sections are quite hard at the best of times but were particularly tricky today, one can only be amazed at the racers virtually straight lining this. The red Col de Voza and adjoining pistes were in good condition, but the red Mur des Epines was poor with large icy patches. This was very much the case all over, one moment skiing on reasonable even grippy snow then a bit lower, hardpack or worse.

One of the nice things about Les Houches is the number of small independent restaurants and cafes to be found dotted around the hill side. One of my favourites is the Le Terrain at the top of the Maisonneuve chair. Its good value, and I enjoyed a large tuna salad there today for 8€. It is one of many, and stumbling upon them is all part of the fun. Late in the afternoon, rather than the predicted light snow, we actually had some fleeting moments of sunshine, all very nice, but...

The forecast has been changing all week, sometimes promising huge dumps other times more modest ones. The current Chamonix Meteo which is usually the most reliable predicts 20-30cm overnight Friday and a further 5-10cm Saturday, with sunshine for Sunday. Further “disturbances” are forecast for next week with steeply dropping temperatures at times.

The early season euphoria has certainly evaporated, but Chamonix has had the best of it, and with its high altitude has been less affected by the recent warm spell than most resorts. It is still only 1st Feb, and with (fingers crossed) snow on the way, let's hope by the middle of next week we will be talking again about what the Inuit would call "Klin" or remembered snow and what we call Powder.

The posted avalanche risk today was 2, Moderate.

Check out what to do around town once the lifts have closed with our latest Apres Ski Report - a weekly round up of what's hot and where to party in Chamonix!

Useful Information
Cross-country skiing is Open
Piste Maps for Chamonix (pdf format), Les Houches (jpg format), Cross-country skiing (pdf format), and Mountain-bike trails (pdf format)
Current status for opening of Pistes & Lifts
Chamonix Webcam Index

We will be keeping this Chamonix snow report updated often during the season, but if you want even more up-to-date news on the ski conditions, why not sign up for our Dump Alert? We'll email you each time it snows enough to significantly change the skiing conditions. It's great to know that the snow is falling in the run-up to your holiday, and it might even allow you to book a last-minute weekend when the snow is particularly good. The service is free, and you can unsubscribe whenever you like.

Useful Links
Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research
French Avalanche Research Institute
Meteo France - Mountain weather and avalanche conditions bulletins (in French)
Henry's Avalanche Talk - popular avalanche training sessions based in French Alps as well as translation of current avalanche conditions
PisteHors.com - Backcountry Skiing and Snowboarding News in English for the French Alps. Excellent coverage of avalanche safety and advice.

Additional snow and weather information provided, with thanks, by meteo.chamonix.com and the Tourist Office