The big snow fall which Chamonix and the surrounding area has desperately waited for finally arrived. It was the sort of season saving snow fall that put down about 100cm in our garden. The immediate result of this was that Chamonix skiing stopped because of the high avalanche risk.
Always in this situation , the solution is to jump in the car and head for Megeve, St Gervais , Combloux where there is always acres and acres of powder skiing through the trees. Pretty much always there is no one else around.
Yesterday 7th Feb I went down the Vallee Blanche for the first time this season with my Icelandic neighbours. We arrived at the Aguille du Midi station to find it deserted. This might have had something to do with the sign which stated that it was -30c on the ridge!
In actual fact the conditions were very good, although there was surprisingly little depth of snow on the Mer de glace. We skied all the wsy to Chamonix.