After a few sunny days during the week, the storm is here, a warm sucker punch from North Africa which picked up moisture over the Med sea. It is coming from the South, so there is significantly more precipitation on the Italian side, but we are seeing rain showers in Chamonix today, with a lunchtime snow level of around 2000 metres, and a forecast of dropping temperatures and some decent snowfall above that level. Tomorrow might even be clear-ish, with some deep powder, but we'll see!
This morning I ventured out to Argentiere to see if there was any fresh snow at the Grands Montets, and found that it had rained pretty high up during the night, but already got colder by the time I arrived. The snow line at that point was around the top of the Marmottons chairlift, about 2100m, but there was only 5-10cms of new snow at the top lift, and barely anything reported at the Bochard. I ended up skiing down the Pierre-a-ric to Argentiere in the rain, as it was pretty foggy everywhere else. The snow was great, and still newly groomed all the way down, soft and not sticky, but I did get a bit wet! Tomorrow should be a better day...
After that I went to have a breath of fresh air up the Aiguille du Midi without my skis. There was no visibility, but it was snowing nicely up there, and its exciting to just hang out up there in a storm. Back a couple of days ago (Thursday) I had been up there with a friend to ski a springtime Vallee Blanche classic route, and we had a blue sky day, with the warmest temperatures of the week. We headed up there early, around 8.30, and by the time we were skiing half way down, the snow was just softening to a perfect corn, and we could still ski all the way down to the Montenvers ice cave. On warm days at this time of year, though, it is not a good idea to be out there much later in the day, due to avalanches and weakening snow bridges. A guide will help you find the safest and best options.
