As per the forecast, the sun came out today and most folk were happy to ski around on the piste a bit and enjoy the sun again after recent storms.  The off piste skiing was poor as the high rain snow limit has left a very wet snow pack up to at least 2300m.  Below this altitude the snow was either wet / heavy / crusty / most of the above according to slope angle and aspect….but either way, it wasn’t good to ski!

This was not a huge problem for our Chamonix off piste & ski mountain skills group today as we had lots of good training to do including intro ski touring skills and avalanche awareness discussions.  As is often the case, the worse the snow and conditions, the more training we get done, as we are less distracted by skiing powder!

Our Chamonix off piste & ski mountain skills group – making the most of the poor off piste conditions – with ski touring & avalanche awareness training.

After plenty of coffee and discussing the current high avalanche conditions we set off on the Les Houches skinning track which was in good complete condition although quite compact in places, so the ski crampon training was at least relevant!   Many other teams were enjoying this track and it seems very popular and a great success since it was introduced a few years ago.

Transceiver search practice and avalanche emergency procedure training below the Col de Voza at Les Houches

We found equally poor off piste conditions on the sunny Bionnassay side of the Col de Voza but at least had the semi pisted track to ‘ski’ (snow plough!) down to the excellent little Refuge Fioux for a great simple lunch.  We completed the day with avalanche emergency procedure training and transceiver search practise before skiing a fairly icy Kandahar piste back to Bellevue.

Teams who made the long wait for the lifts to open at the Grands Montets were finally, after 2 hours in a queue, pleased to hear the Herse was going to open, only to find the same rain crust problem lower down and tricky wind effected snow higher up, so it wasn’t a Montets classic!  The Bochard lift did not open but has opened today – Weds 24th with the Retour Pendant in preparation to open later.  So there should be plenty of fresh tracks to e had in the rain crust there too!

Whilst the Midi lift did open yesterday, skiers were not allowed!  Although one team did manage to ski the Vallee Blanche somehow!  Sunny weather looks likely to continue until Thursday afternoon with cloud building from there and more fresh snow on Friday, this time with a lower rain – snow limit thankfully!

Our Chamonix off piste & ski mountain skills classic courses are full for Feb & March but we do have spaces in April and we do have 1 place available on the progression course in both March & April.

We also have a couple of places left on our Chamonix Intro Ski Touring Course 5-9th Feb including a night at the superb Rifugio Bonatti in the Italian Val Feret…

Bon Ski.