After a wild and wet night, with lots of rain in the valley, it was good to see the rain finally turning to snow in the valley floor at 1000m. It had obviously turned to snow a lot earlier at the top of Les Houches as there was a superb deep bed of light even powder to be skied, even on the piste!
Great skiing around most of the resort and even in the thicker trees there was good cover, deep, light & smooth fresh snow and fun skiing finding new lines around the surprisingly large amount of terrain accessed both from the lifts and with skinning powered assistance. The rest of the valley was on lock down due to storm weather conditions and high avalanche risk. So Les Houches was the place to be along with the lower resorts in the Ski Evasion area with less steep terrain above them.
Later in the day the freezing level rose to around 700m with only the base of the Arve Valley – Le Fayet to Sallanches not snow covered and even then, only a petit 1C.
Plenty more snow on the way for the rest of the week by the look of it which will only improve the already excellent snow cover albeit maintaining the high avalanche risk.
The top lift at the Grands Montets remains closed for now due to a technical problem after big recent storms and snowy cables. This is a shame as the classic Glacier d’Argentiere ski descent from the top station was reported to be in excellent condition.
We still have 2 places left on our Chamonix off piste & mini ski tour day this Saturday 20th Jan, so click that link and fill in the booking form and pay if you have intermediate off piste skills, some basic ski touring experience and would like a fun day skiing this Saturday.
Bon ski!
