to full winter:

Where to get up to date information about snow conditions in Chamonix:

The official Chamonix site publishes fairly basic info on snow depths etc. It’s mostly useful for keeping an eye on which lifts are open. The Compagnie du Mont Blanc has similar information and webcams which are handy dfor seeing what current conditions look like:

But it’s hard to gauge the state of the snow from a webcam.

For more detailed snow reports, there are plenty of powder enthusiasts keeping the world updated. These aren’t in any particular order – they are all well worth a look to get a good all-round picture of conditions in the valley.

Glacier Skiing Safety (Silent edit for CMB) from Simon Christy on Vimeo.

Trey at Chamonix Insider writes vividly about “Climbing, skiing, gear, and general irresponsibility by, about & for the Chamonix Massif.”…more eclectic subject matter, with regular snow reports sprinkled in the mix.

“Brewing up, dropping in, flaming out, landing hard, cowboyin’ up, topping out, throwin’ horns and basically having the “Best Day Ever!” over and over and over again in this little corner of paradise we call Chamonix.”

He’s also on Twitter @chamonixinsider.

Seb Montaz, Chamonix guide, films beautifully crafted video snow reports which are fantastic viewing if you’re dreaming of being in the mountains, and useful when you’re lucky enough to be there. His site is well worth a good look around, and you can also see them on his Vimeo channel. Here’s the latest one to give you an idea – the visible frame tells you it’s gonna be good!

Video produced by Chamonet.Com

Chamonix.net also has a regular snow report with pics, and features the videos from Seb Montaz as above.

This thread on snowheads.com is updated by forum members (including me!) pretty regularly

For the iPhone, here’s a very useful little page with lots of handy links together chamonixunderground.com

If your French is up to it, you can get information from the Office de Haute Montagne on both high mountain and mid-mountain conditions, and also the Meteo France report which includes avalanche conditions.

Another good way to get an idea of the current conditions is to search Flickr for ‘Chamonix’ and then view the most recent photos I’ve seen some lovely photos over the last year or so from “cedccb” who recently posted this great shot of the Couloir Rectiligne

So hopefully these sites will give you useful info – but of course conditions change all the time, so make your own judgements carefully when you’re out there – remembering this quote I found on the excellent Pistehors site, from French guide Claude Rey:
“Globally the risk is good, locally there is a danger of death”.

Please do leave a comment if you’ve found this useful, (or not!) or if you’ve got/know of more sites that could be added.

Happy skootching!

Evolution 2 in Chamonix have sent a report of current conditions on The Vallée Blanche January 2010:

“For Skiers:
First off, present conditions mean it is only accessible to the very best off-piste skiers (80cm of powder, wind-crust, the safest route is the steepest, and a few crevasses to hop over…..). With new snowfall this might change, but for the time being, guides can only take very advanced groups of up to 3 people (works out 120€pp). Crampons are needed for the ‘semi-equipped’ arête, where skiers have to ski a small section of the ridge. Not for the faint hearted!”

“For snowboarders:
The present conditions mean the Vallée Blanche is temporarily a no-go area for boarders. (A guide with 2 Russian snowboarders, predictably got evacuated Thursday (Not Evo 2, I must add)). Information will be available as soon as the guides believe it is safe.”

You can also join Evolution 2 guides to find out the weeks’ Vallée Blanche conditions, weather and availability.
From 17.00hrs to 19.00hrs every Tuesday in the VB bar in Chamonix – a great bar run by a friend of ours, which is on the ground floor of the Vallee Blanche Hotel.

The Vallee Blanche

The excellent Henry’s Avalanche Talks will also be back in Chamonix at Le Vert on Wed 13th Jan, from 18.30.
Topics covered include: current conditions, trends and general information of how to take care in an off-piste environment, followed by a Q & A. I’ve been to these talks and they are fascinating and very useful, highly recommended.

Finally, here’s a great video roundup of recent conditions by Chamonix guide Seb Montaz, from January 7th:

…and though the Verte is always white on the summit, you can see a light covering on the lower ledges, below the clouds.

The’ve written a rather lovely statement to start it off:

Because every year we see the glaciers melting…
Because, here, our environment is sacred…
Because we owe everything to Mont Blanc…
Because the mountain is fragile…
Because our environment is sensitive…
Help us to protect our surroundings…
To seek a new balance between development and protection of the mountains.

We hope very much to be working with them in these initiatives, and hope that it proves popular!

http://chamonixgoesgreen.org/

The “Club des Amis Respectueux des Vallées Alpines”, known as Club ARVA for short, has had a campaign on for some time now to plant trees in order to hide the motorway. Their first success was around the Youth Hostel, which now looks so much better with its new forest of 250 trees, planted by the club.

This beautiful painting is by Martial Bourlot and is on the front of their card – the reverse reads:

Trees for life for the Chamonix Valley

With one euro, ten euros or more, we can hide the route “blanche” (the motorway that sits at the foot of Mont Blanc and its glaciers, cutting the valley in two) and help restore the enchanting splendour of the Chamonix valley. Together we’ll buy a forest :
a larch (mélèze)
a branch
a fir (un sapin)
a rowan (un sorbier des oiseleurs)
an Arolla pine ( un pin cembro)
a needle (une aiguille)
a nest (un nid)
a silver birch (un bouleau)
a rare beech (un hêtre rare)
a hornbeam (un charme)
a Mugho pine (un pin à crochets)
a sequoia,
an oak (un chêne)
a pine cone (une pomme de pin)
the smell of resin (un parfum de résine)
silence,
shade (de l’ombre)
the breeze (du vent)
oxygen
leaves of all shades and colours
a glimmer of hope …

Plant – Hide – Admire – Cherish – Respect – Cultivate – Persevere and Wager that one day man will stop destroying his own nest. As one makes one’s nest, one must curl up in it …

Association Club A.R.V.A 94 Chemin de la Rosière, 74400 Chamonix Mont-Blanc

To donate, you can make a cheque payable to the association Club A.R.V.A, or bank transfer to Credit Agricole de Chamonix, IBAN FR76 1810 60002296 7032 5669 196

Some photos of the park on Dec 18th 2007 – click to see them larger on Flickr

They are also offering the “Chamonix Le Pass” for a reduced rate of 27 euros, so it’s a great time to get out and take advantage of the brilliant early winter snowfall at a discount price.

Families will be pleased to see that the very popular family offer has been continued this year. Two adults pay full price, the first child pays half price, and the rest of the kids are free!
More details on the Compagnie du Mont Blanc site.

These photos from the STEEP film site look fantastic, and US release dates are on the site now so let’s hope to see it in Europe soon.

Skier descends mountain face. Photo by Chris Noble © 2007 High Ground Productions, LLC courtesy Sony Pictures Classics. All Rights Reserved.

Skier making jump. Photo by Chris Noble © 2007 High Ground Productions, LLC courtesy Sony Pictures Classics. All Rights Reserved.

Trailer for Steep (There is a larger version available on their site )

Interesting video interview with the film makers from the Tribeca film festival:

STEEP film site

Update (27th May 2008) – Still no sign of any release here, which is a shame, I’d love to see it on the big screen. However, it’s available on DVD and we have it at the chalet now. It’s beautifully shot, but to me, it’s the old footage that is the most amazing – seeing those legendary Chamonix descents in brilliantly restored colour is eye-popping stuff. Highly recommended, and I’ll keep this updated in case of news about a cinema release.

If you will be going for a fortnight or more, these are well worth taking advantage of, with 10% off the ten day packs, and 15% off the 15 day packs, with the discount rising to 35% on a season or year’s Unlimited pass.

Full details here, on the Compagnie Du Mont Blanc site.

View of Mont Blanc from the top of Les Grands Montets…