Well, it sure was a powder day, but not anything like I expected!
We had lots of rain yesterday, up to 2000m, and that continued overnight, before cooling off and dropping the snowline to the valley floor this morning. I went to Flegere, but they were saying that they wouldn't open at all, due to the conditions. There has been lots of wind and tons of new snow, over 40 cms overnight above 2000m, on top of what fell yeterday up there and more higher up, especially with the windloading. It turned into a Chamonix storm day, where most of the lifts were on hold or closed for the day. Les Houches had a bunch of terrain open, as they are less exposed to the wind and avalanche risk, but the other areas had a small amount of terrain open.
I ended up heading to Grands Montets, where there was hardly anyone, and they were waiting for the wind to drop a bit so that they could run the lifts. It was a long wait, but worth it, as at 11am they loaded us up, and surprisingly the Herse chairlift was open, with some OK visibility - flat light, but not too much fog.
The snow was incredible - really creamy deep powder, with some new fluff on top that hadn't been too wind affected, and very floaty. It felt like skiing on a fluffy sponge! About half way down you could feel how deep it was, too, where there had been less wind, and it was fluffing up to my thighs.
The wind is supposed to switch to the North later today, which means colder and maybe clearer tomorrow, with probably most terrain open. Watch out for frostbite...
