Submitted by ChamonixNews on
Wow, yes it snowed this week in Chamonix, the first decent snowfall in several weeks!
Since Wednesday there have been rain and snow showers in Chamonix town, getting progressively colder during the week. Friday was especially stormy, and by Saturday morning there must have been 50 centimetres of fresh snow built up in the mid-alpine, with maybe 30-40cm total at around 2000m. It has created a nice cushion over the sandy refrozen spring snow that we had been skiing on.
Today, Sunday, the sun made a re-appearance here and there. At the Grands Montets it was cold, with a thick layer of cloud in mid mountain, which we could go above by riding the Bochard and Herse lifts, or skinning up towards the old top cable car station. It was a truly magical morning up on the mountain, with some light snowflakes falling, and no wind until later on in the day. The clouds dissipated a bit during the day, and it is a beautiful atmospheric evening now in Chamonix.
The new snow got a bit heavy quite quickly on south facing slopes, and some of the pistes are still hard where the new snow has been skied out, but conditions are very good right now. The Pierre-a-ric piste down from Grands Montets has still lots of snow coverage all the way to the bottom, thanks to early season snow cannons, for example, and there is plenty of snow above 1800/2000m.
Winter is not over yet: The week ahead is forecast sunny to begin, but unstable later on, with another big snowfall predicted on Thursday/Friday...
