Wet weather here in Chamonix

A south west air stream has hit Chamonix and all the humid air has brought rain to the valley and it's just not pleasant out of doors, but still not as bad as Fortwilliam! We went to ski this morning but turned back, collected our climbing gear and headed for the local climbing wall. It was really OK there and we enjoyed a quiet hour until others began to arrive and crowd the place out. "Mont Blanc Escalade", is the climbing wall and is situated next to the Simond factory in Les Houches, a five minute drive from Chamonix and is a cool place to get muscles pumped and while away a wet day! Snow wise, the freezing level is around 1600 meters perhaps dropping to 800 meters overnight, so there will be plenty snow once this air stream passes through!

Verbier today

We have had an amazing day in Switzerland with some superb snow! Bad weather commencing tonight as there is a large front passing through, they are saying snow coming down to 800 m here inChamonix... Wow!!!

Great snow in Chamonix

Skiing at Grand Montets today, you do not have to go far to find the most amazing snow! Cara is really getting to grips with the steep and the deep. Visabilty stayed reasonable and well, it has been perfect!

Chamonix haze and lots of ace snow

Snowing like crazy here just above Chamonix and we enjoyed some great snow, visibility was not so good really high up but at mid levels it was OK. Howevere it's a great excuse to sample the fantastic lunches. But we skied our legs off anyways! Meanwhile in Rogers Pass, BC. my friends Alan, Alex and aspirant avalanche serach and rescue hound, Chester had a great time on Youngs peak......

Fresh snow

We woke up to several inches of fresh snow this morning. From our window we could hear the avalanche guns so Cara and I decided to go and find some fresh tracks elsewhere. About an hours drive from here there is little gem of a place which is best accessed from Notre Dame de Bellcombe. The ski area is known as Espace Diamant and it has expanded vaslty over the past years and boasts some amazing skiing with few people and one hardly ever has to que. Many of the forests are home to rare birds so are protected and skiing some of trees is therefor prohibited, but the skiing was truly superb today with good light and visibility. Even with the new snow the avalanche risk was lowish. We have had an outstanding day!

Vallorcine and Col de Balme

Cara is totally motivated and loves skiing though the trees! There were lenticulars on Mont Blanc all day and the forecast is for 10 -20 cms snow down to around 800 meters tonight! We will have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.

Chamonix

Arrived in Chamonix, cannot wait to get out there!