Schneebericht Chamonix, 06.03.2017

Schneelage

Coverage is total. There really is no need to say anything more.

Schneequalität

This morning every single ounce of snow was light and fluffy, but noticeably rising temperatures as the day progressed meant that snow below 1600m or so was starting to get a little wet and heavy.This is a minor complaint, and one we really have no right to be making.

The avalanche risk was, quite rightly, set at 4/5 today, and is set to be 3/5 tomorrow. Sunny spells in the morning will begin purges of the steeper south-facing slopes, and rising temperatures throughout the day will continue it, particularly at the lower altitudes. Up high the westerly winds have left possible slab on north-east, east, and south-east facing aspects. Small patches of windslab breaking and smaller natural purges are likely to trigger in turn much larger slides, so it's definitely still the time to aim for shallow angles and mellow terrain, and stay away from under steeper slopes, let alone try and ski them.

Gesamteindruck

With most of the lifts in the valley closed and the avalanche risk set at 4/5, a group of friends and I decided to aim for some mellow tree skiing, and sweated our way through 1200m of storm touring in my back garden.The snow was too deep, and it kept covering our goggles so we could barely see a thing. It was awesome.