Sunday evening, 15th March 2020
And there we are. I think this brings us to to the end of this regular blog for the 2020 ski season.
Last day out with our intro touring group today. When we arrived at Le Tour there was about ten cars. When we left after lunchtime the car park was full and the hill was rammed full of ski tourers enjoying the sun and probably the last turns of the season.
We still have trips pencilled in for this month and next and are monitoring the situation every day.
Soon we will be publishing more dates for the 2021 season and we hope you will join us on the trips. We will ski in Austria, France, Switzerland, Italy and a ski touring trip in Gerogia. There will be some early booking incentives as well.
Thanks for reading and see you next time.
Ben Bradford – Chamonix March 15th
Sunday morning 15th March 2020
All resorts in France including Chamonix are now shut until further notice.
We were expecting it to happen, just a matter of when rather than if.
That is almost certainly the end of the ski season here in Chamonix. People will still ski tour for the moment but there is a probable voluntary ban on mountain and outdoor activities soon so as not to stretch medical services if there’s an accident.
This is impacting all of our planned trips this spring and we have been in touch with many of you already. Bear with us during this busy admin time. More updates soon.
Saturday 14th March 2020
Yep, we are still skiing here in Chamonix! Playing it day by day right now. All ski resorts in Switzerland now shut but nothing known about France just yet.
We have had a good days skiing however. Our week long intro ski touring group finished with a nice tour from the Grand St Bernard hospice before heading back to Chamonix. A successful six days with a whole bunch of different conditions and tours in the Chamonix area and over in Switzerland.
The zero to hero weekend ski touring group (I just made that name up) headed to Flegere for some downhill and a fair amount of uphill (650m) to the col des dards. Some good snow up there if you picked the correct aspect to ski on. We fitted in plenty of kick turn practice and a little avalanche transceiver workshop too.
And finally I can report that the Aiguille du Midi was running and after a cold start walking down the snow arete the Vallee Blanche guys had a good ski. Some spectacular cloud layers today with a lower layer obscuring the valley and a higher one covering the top summits.
Tomorrow looks very mild again, but should still give some good conditions. Those south facing slopes will need to soften up first though.
Clouds coming and going all day up the Chamonix Valley.
Some nice pockets of soft snow on the descent from the Col Des Dards
Above Lac Blanc on our descent. Aiguille Vert and Dru behind.
Enjoying fine weather on the intro ski touring week – Chamonix and Switzerland.
Friday 13th March 2020
Fresh snow up high and the lift of Chamonix are running. Lots of concern over travel and Covid-19 right now. The lifts, trains and lift stations of the Chamonix have extra ventilation and regular cleaning. We are monitoring the situation day by day but right now all trips are going ahead as planned.
We have a Vallee Blanche trip running tomorrow with spaces available. Give us a shout for more info.
It looks like some good stable weather and snow for the week ahead. Bad news for powder skiing but good news for the remote ski tours we have planned. Ski touring away from the lifts might be the way ahead!
Photos below of our ski touring trip who this week skied the Vallee Blanche.
Wednesday 11th March 2020
Our intro ski touring group are having fun this week. A mixed of weather and conditions with some fresh snow to play in. Very mild again here in Chamonix today, spring temperetures.
Italy is still in lockdown with the Corovirus. All resorts in the Aosta valley including the SkyWay are shut. It remains to be seen what will happen in France and Switzerland over the next few weeks. We are taking it day by day and for the moment our planned trips are still going ahead.
Monday 9th March 2020
A great day with Jon and Chloe yesterday, teaching skills on the Vallee Blanche. Good fun giving some advice and skiing at the back of the group for a change!
We skied the Petit Envers before finishing on the moyen. Good snow and some freshies to be had. The glacier is well filled in compared with a couple of weeks ago, helped by the recent snow obviously.
We finished at the train, but quite a few folk skiing to town. Some walking on the lower James Bond track but the section to get from the train to the boot pack looked ok actually. Much better than I thought it might be.
More snow today and tomorrow. So as long as the lifts stay open we are laughing. And if they shut it’ll be ski touring.
Saturday 7th March 2020
A couple of powder days in Chamonix. Plenty of fresh snow and a settling snow pack after the storm. We skied from the plan d’Aiguille (mid station of the Aiguille du midi) and then a petit envers Vallee Blanche yesterday. A shed load of snow up there and good fun.
Today the lifts started opening up after yesterdays shut down (due to avalanche risk that threaten the pistes). We went to Brevant and waited for the Cornu lift to open and then went ski touring away from the crowds. Very nice powder on the shady side 🙂
Looks like a mixed bag of weather over the week ahead. More snow and some warmer weather before it settles again. We have an intro ski touring weekend on the 14th/15th – give us a shout if you’re keen for some of that.
Great snow off the plan d’aguille.
Deep snow on the petit envers on the Vallee Blanche
Superb snow off the Cornu lift at Brevant.
Deserted ski touring off the back of the aiguille rouge.
Thursday 5th March 2020
Absolutely torrential rain here in Chamonix today. 30 – 40mm due in the valley and around a meter of snow at 2500m.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow. Category 4 on the avalanche scale whilst the natural avalanches purge themselves and then it’ll settle down a little. We decided to cancel our scheduled Vallee Blanche open group for tomorrow. Weather and conditions conspiring against us.
Our next open Vallee Blanche is on the 22nd March.
A bit gutted to hear that the Tour du Rutor ski alpinisme race has been cancelled in northern Italy because of Coronovirus. No surprise really. It was due to be my first “guiding” race but we are switching to Kandersteg and the Swiss ski marathon. 3600m of ascent! It’s going to be a beast.
Here’s a little video that I took on our last day of ski touring with Niall and Stewart. Low angled safe powder skiing. Love it.
Sunday 1st March 2020
Another couple of stormy days in Chamonix. The Foehn wind has created a blustery and warm valley before another front on Saturday night that dropped a fair amount of snow above 1800m.
Our ski touring groups skied both sides of the range on Saturday, with one team on the petit criose braulet above Combloux enjoying a short tour and some nice snow away from the wind in the trees.
The Cluley brothers and I headed through to Italy and a long tour in the remote and quiet Val di Rhemes, on the edge of the Grand Paradiso national park. We were racing the weather a little and despite being very close (100m vertical) from the summit we turned tail and skied down whilst we still had a little visibility. It was a great and long tour with around 1600m of ascent.
Sunday was all about the powder and our off piste group at the Grand Montet made the most of their morning getting some good looking lines in the fresh snow.
After some patient waiting for the Aiguille du Midi to open it transpired that the weather up there was much better than forecast and the snow was deep. A tour up the periades glacier was tiring in the fresh snow but it was so worth it!
Grand Montet Off piste skiing
High above the valley, touring from the Val di Rhemes
Ski Touring from the Vallee Blanche.
The glacier Periades. Stewart making some tracks. We were the only skiers in this bowl.
Some of the best snow of the season.
Friday 28th February 2020
What a mixed bag of weather this winter is turning out to be. From spring temperetures at the start of the week to heavy snow in the valley a day later.
Winter has had a reset once again with more than half a meter of snow up high. Our groups have enjoyed some stormy tree skiing in the powder as well as a good run down the Vallee Blanche yesterday when the skiers cleared.
The SkyWay lift opened way before the Midi yesterday and so many groups took advantage of that to ski the Vallee Blanche from the Italian side. The steep off piste runs from the mid and top station were getting skied in the fresh snow too.
The weather is looking pretty mixed over the next few days with some strong winds at mid and high altitude. It’s a matter of being oppertunistic for where and when to ski.
When you’re skinning uphill with googles on you know its a storm day!
Aosta Ski Touring – playing in the woods.
Grand Montet warm up morning before the Vallee Blanche. best backdrop ever?
Monday 24th February 2020
The February half term madness continues… busy on the pistes. And the stable snow and weather has meant the classic ski tours have been seeing a lot of action. And the not so classic routes too! If you had an arial photo of the Aiguille Rouge you’d see vitually every ski touring possibility mapped out for you.
Our Vallee Blanche teams from the past couple of days have had a good time. Skiing the Gros Rognon and Moyen variations with picnics and hut stops along the way. The powder is well chopped up now but softening in the sun.
For ski touring today we wanted to get off the beaten track once again and with good stable snow as well as weather (if a little too hot) we choose an unusual route that traversed the range from Brevant’s col Cornu via Lac Noir, the Col Salenton and down to the village of le Buet. Another long and intricate ski tour that required a little bit of care in places with steep slopes and traverses.
We got properly cooked going up the final valley, but it was a wild place and we were the only people there. And for this time of year in that weather was pretty unique in the Aiguille Rouge.
It looks like snow over the next few days in Chamonix. It’ll be nice to have a “reset” again, and perhaps some powder skiing in the trees once more.
Spring-like ski touring. Mont Blanc in the background.
Chasing Allan down the north facing slopes below Lac Noir
The long hot skin towards Col Salenton, Aiguille Rouge.
Friday 21st February 2020
A few busy few days here in Chamonix and for Vertical Frontiers. We’ve had a few groups on the Vallee Blanche for the past couple of days enjoying the fresh powder that fell on Monday. Skiing the classic route, Gros Rognon, Petit Envers and from the Skyway lift on the Italian side.
We skied the Petit Envers variation on Thursday followed by a ski tour on the Glacier Periades. Perfect snow and weather. The stuff dreams are made of!
It is super busy at the moment though. February half-term madness. It was taking around two hours from the glacier to climb the steps, queue for the lift and queue for the train before finally getting down to Chamonix.
Today our ski touring group fancied something a bit more off the beaten track and we decided on a A to B linear tour starting from Brevant’s top station and traversing across the Aiguille Rouge to finish in Plaine Joux. A brilliant and wild journey through some interesting terrain with no one around.
We could see plenty of tracks on all the classic tours. Very good conditions for that right now with stable snow and good powder on the shady sides of the mountains. Looking ahead at the weather this week we should have a weekend of very similar conditions with plenty of skiing to be done.
Warm on Monday so back up to altitude for the best skiing I would think. Then another stormy cycle from Tuesday. We have spaces on our Vallee Blanche trip this Sunday 23rd.
Stopping for photos on the classic Route – Vallee Blanche
Deep snow on the Petit Envers variation of the Vallee Blanche.
Skinning away from the normal Vallee Blanche route into the shade on the Glacier Periades. Lots of people skinng ove the Breche Puiseux and Col du Tacul.
Pausing for breath skiing down fron the col Brevant.
Crossing the Pont l’Arve after skiing down from Brevant. A wild valley and great ambience.
Summit ridge line of the Pormenaz. A massive panorama from here of the entire Mont Blanc, Fiz and Aravis ranges. We were slap bang in the middle of them all.
Cold powder on the north facing slopes of the Pormenaz.
There was a lot of lumps and dips coming down the north side of the Pormenaz. Good to have visibility on this route.
Obligatory stream crossing. Such a good long tour this one with a wide variety of terrain. A long way, but highly recommended.
Tuesday 18th February 2020
After an extremly wet Monday afternoon and evening it turned good today. Both of our Vallee Blanche groups started at Brevant for a warm up ski before heading to the Aiguille du Midi.
The snow was pretty deep up the top and we got some great turns on the Petit Envers variation whilst Dave and his group headed to the Gros Rognon. Lots of fresh tracks to be had all the way to the Requin hut area.
Folks were out touring on the glacier Periades and up towards the Italian side of the Vallee Blanche, although it looked pretty quiet over there.
Despite the rain up to 2000m or so yesterday the lower glacier was in OK condition still and we skied to the train as per Sunday’s trip (see below). A little walking but nothing too bad. Despite all the chat and rumors there is a lot of very good skiing to be had at the moment. And the ski touring options are excellent. Sure, some of the lower altitude snow is poor or non-existant but that just means you have to pick the venues carefully.
It looks like a stormy day tomorrow but improving at the end of the week and into the weekend. There are spaces on Sunday’s Vallee Blanche trip here.
Monday 17th February 2020
Racing the weather today. The storm was due by two o’clock and we wanted to go touring. So first lift at Flegere followed by some windy ski touring over the col crouches. We decided against the glacier mort and continued to traverse before skining up through the key hole (breche de Berard). One of my favorite ski tours.
Some big icy patches on the descent, and some pockets of powder too. Flat light but the weather stayed good and we were on the train back to Chamonix by lunchtime.
Heavy rain in the valley this afternoon and windy up high. There will be some powder to be skied tomorrow once the resorts open. A shame there’s been so much wind at altitude, it will have affected the snow.
Sunday 16th February 2020
Another day on the Vallee Blanche. Still good conditions on the upper glacier. We skied the Gros Rognon variation and had some good powder until we joined the normal trail lower down. Really quiet too. The lower glacier is pretty bare. Actually got quite close to the train without much walking but it’s very thin. Some colder tempretures and a little snow would be nice.
Lots of people touring over towards the breche puiseux. I bet it was great on the other side but probably well tracked out by now. People skiing the classic VB lines including the “true” Vallee Blanche orginal. I.e. skiers left of the Gros Rognon.
Here’s a little video of the last couple of days on the Vallee Blanche.
The next scheduled open trip for the Vallee Blanche is the 22nd February. You can book online here.
Saturday 15th February 2020
Powder and sunshine over the last couple of days here in Chamonix. Very warm though. Only the true north facing snow or snow at alitude has stayed cold and fluffy.
The Vallee Blanche is open for business and our scheduled trip had a superb run there today. The powder at the top was the stuff of dreams… the ice and traversing lower down not so much. Six very happy skiers and boarders drinking beer in Chamonix right now.
Le Tour was the venue for our off piste group on Friday. A good 40cm of fresh snow and plenty of tracks to be skied all day long.
People have been out skiing plenty of lines here in Chamonix and the Aosta valley including the skyway. Timing is everything on the south facing slopes again. It’s like spring condition out here. Too early and its icy hard, to late and it’s heavy and dangerous (especially lower down).
The weather looks pretty good for the next day or so. Then a bit more mixed again.
We have various trips and oppertunities to join grops or private guiding over the next couple of weeks, so give us a shout if you want some info.
Off piste skiing at Le tour – another boot pack to the tete du balme.
The back bowls at le Tour delivering some greta powder once again.
The Aiguille du Midi arete.
The lower Vallee Blanche – always scenic.
Thursday 12th February 2020
Shock news – snow in the Chamonix valley! Finally some of the white stuff, rather than the rain. A fair amount of nice snow at the Grand Montet this morning where John and I skinned from the Bouchard lift to the Col before a nice ski down the “front face” back into the resort. It’s so good having the top lift at the Grand Montet shut. A Ski tourers paradise! Long may that continue.
There was some nice wind blown powder but also some horrendous ice around as well. Really nasty stuff. But the soft was welcome. Then this afternoon we’ve had plenty of snow showers right down to around 800m in the valley which hopefully will leave the predicted 30 – 40cm of snow at around the 1800m mark by tomorrow morning. Once the lifts are up and running we should have some nice powder to ski again.
Our Vallee blanche group is full for this Saturday, but we have options for private guiding or joining an off piste/touring group over the weekend. Get in touch if you’re in the valley and keen.
Ski Touring at the Grand Montet, Chamonix.
Some nice wind blown powder. Not the best visability but a good adventure.
Wednesday 11th February 2020
Stunning weather and the mountains were looking white and dramatic. A small amount of fresh snow around 1800m. Pistes still very icy lower down than that.
Looking up the Chamonix valley from Les Houches.
Tuesday 10th February 2020
Well after the UK got hit by the storms this weekend it was our turn yesterday. Although no where near as bad thankfully. Rain to 2000m again though. It has really stripped the snow from lower levels. I skinned (ski toured) up Les Houches for some training today and the track is non-existant. And even the pistes are suffering again.
Some fresh snow above 1400m today though. Some nice turns in the woods above that and probably 15cm of fresh at the top when I was there.
Fresh snow around the ski touring track at Les Houches today.
We had a ski touring group based out of Courmayeur today and Ally took them ski touring at Arpy just down the Aosta valley. Some pretty wild weather and windy, but some nice turns by the sound of it.
Still some mixed weather over the coming days with a little more snow to come. Saturday looks better for our Vallee Blanche group up high but our off piste groups should enjoy some fresh snow at lower altitudes before that. A link to the avalance bulletin here, which is probably worth reading, due to an increase in hazard coming over the next few days.
Ski Touring in the Aosta valley mid storm.
Sunday 9th February 2020
An excellent weekend for skiing in the Chamonix Mont Blanc area with plenty of folk out taking advantage of the weather, snow and more stable avalanche conditions.
On Saturday our ski touring group headed to Flegere and the col des Dards for an out and back trip. It’s a great trip for some ski tour training with a variety of terrain for kick turns, route choice and all that stuff.
Today Rich and I headed up and over the Col du Passon, a Chamonix ultra classic. It’s a bit harder now that the top lift at the Grand Montet is shut, we clocked just over a 1000m height gain from the start of the skinning. The south facing skin was a hot one, more like April than February.
And the ski down was a mix of powder, ice and hard pack. All good fun, and video to follow.
The next few days look extremly stormy. Probably an indoor day tomorrow. Or maybe skiing at Les Houches. High winds, rain to 2500m and heavy snow above that. Most Chamonix lifts will be shut tomorrow (Monday 10th) I would think.
Skinning up towards the Col des Dards – Aiguille Rouge.
Rich giving it some welly on the descent – Col Des Dards
Summit fever
Friday 7th february 2020
A hot spring day in February. Everything south facing had been cooked by the sun and then frozen hard overnight. But the north facing slopes were holding the cold snow nicely. I was back at le Tour with the americans from Wednesday and we skied all the classics here. The Vormaine Couloirs, Posettes south side, three runs down the back bowls and the fun little gullies between the pistes.
This weekend it’s the Khadahar downhill world cup race in Les Houches and it looks like the weather will be pretty reasonable. Next week looks set to be stormy with some fluctuating temperetures. Some rain followed by snow again.
The bouchard lift at the Grand Montet has been fixed so that’s open again.
A little word about a couple of longer ski tours we have this spring. The classic Chamonix to Zermatt Haute route in March and an introductory Silvretta ski tour in Austria in April.
Thursday 6th February 2020
After hearing about some nasty sounding icy conditions on the Vallee Blanche we decided to move our scheduled trip to a different location. Le Tour was sunny and fun, with plenty of soft snow around and some untracked sections. We skied off the back plenty and a run down to the car park from Posettes too.
Our ski touring group headed to the Grand Montet for a ski tour up the Argentiere glacier towards the Col Tour Noire. It’s a bit of a ski tourers paradise up there now that the top lift is out of action. Long may that continue!
It looks like a warm day tomorrow. Freezing level going up to 2700m. We are going to leave the Vallee Blanche until after it’s snowed again and the icy slopes are covered again. For the moment there are plenty of other good options and the ski touring is pretty good.
Summit of the Tete de Balme with the Vallee Blanche group today.
Back bowls of Le Tour. Some nice snow in there.
Skinning up the Argentiere glacier after leaving the Grand Montet ski area.
Transition before skiing
Wednesday 5th February 2020
It snowed! 20cm of more of light fully powder in the valley overnight = lots of happy skiers.
A special shout out to Ryan who can ski with only one pole like a ninja. Not the first time he’s lost a pole in the powder I think….
Tuesday 4th February 2020
What a bizarre winter it’s turning out to be. After skiing low altitude powder last week we had another storm system come in over the weekend (see below) which has desimated the snow up to 2500m, literally washing everything away which wasn’t compacted.
No groups out today, but we had a short training ski tour up the skinning track at les Houches.
Temperatures have dropped today and we’ve had snow down to 700m. So the woods were looking white again but it was mostly superficial. Around 5cm of fresh at the top of Les Houches (1900m). There will have been a lot of snow up high over the last few days although with some crazy strong winds, so there will be a right old mix of conditions now.
Full guiding service resumes from tomorrow so we will update this blog over the next couple of days.
Soggy fresh snow played havoc with the skins. Ollie stopping to readjust.
The view from the top of Les Houches. A stormy old day.
The piste was pretty bad below 1500m at Les Houches. Fortunatly most of the skiing in the Chamonix valley is above 2000m.
Sunday 2nd February 2020
Heavy rain yesterday and all day today. The rain-snow limit is around 2500m so skiing in the woods is out. A good day to be down in the valley, away from the wet soggy snow. Avalanche category 4… but it’s due to get colder and things should improve through the week.
We have a scheduled Vallee Blanche (if the weather is kind) or off piste day (if it isn’t) on Wednesday 6th February. Details and online booking here.
Here’s a great little video compilation that Atle made with the GoPro and drone this last week (see post below).
Saturday 1st February 2020
After a long drought here in the alps we finally had a proper storm cycle with snow to low altitudes here in Chamonix. We’ve had a variety of groups out enjoying the fresh snow on the Vallee Blanche, Le Tour, Grand Montet and touring over into the Argentiere glacier.
It’s all gone quite mild now though. We had rain up to 2000m on Thursday night which had wrecked the snow below that height, but put down some proper snow up high. The Vallee Blanche and upper Grand Montet were really good yesterday (Friday 31st).
All change again this weekend. Rain low down and tons of snow up high. It’s going to be a wild few days on the hill… check out the local weather forecast for the Chamonix valley here.
Great snow and the best backdrop – ski touring over the back of Grand Montet Friday 31st january 2020.
