After such a great early season, the foehn wind had been quite depressing. The snow that remained in town was no longer white and the mountains just looked gloomy and dangerous. It was only last Saturday that everything was white and fluffy, but I was already longing for a good powder day. We really have been quite spoiled this year.

Although I've heard that people have had good days in Courmayeur and even on the Grands Montets, I hadn't made any plans to go skiing today. But then, I woke up to the lovely sound of snow machines clearing the town of snow.

The weather report hadn't predicted this! Already in the morning we had more snow than we were supposed to get today and the flakes were big and coming down fast. Almost too much snow - what would be open?

I had a little trouble finding ski buddies in this very busy week and had no intention of braving the blizzard on my own. Finally, I met up with last year's snowreporter, Steve, for a quick run on the Pre de Rocher to check out the conditions in the afternoon.

We were the only ones and so we had fresh tracks the whole way down. In my my last report for the Plan de l'Aiguille on Saturday, I wrote that I didn't touch bottom on the Pre de Rocher. That is not entirely true anymore. The winds took their toll on the Plateau and the snow cover is very irregular and has become a rock mine field once again.

However, once the slope steepens up a bit and dips into the forest, the snow was deeper. In the clearings we were just bouncing over the bumps merrily to the cat track home.

There is a pronounced difference between the bottom layer of snow solidified by the foehn and the new snow on top which is very light and cold. It felt good, but I would be extra careful. The snow seemed deeper and less "slidy" on the slopes with smaller gradients.

Meteo France says that the Chamonix region will probably receive 30-40cm of fresh snow today. The avalanche warning for today and tomorrow is high (3/5) and skiers are warned that there is a possibility that they can set off avalanches off-piste.

Due to tomorrow's north, north-east winds, skiers should especially be aware of possible newly formed wind slab in areas exposed to north-east winds. There still might be old wind slab, so it is best to be careful on all slopes.

Kelly