Chamonix early Jan - is there historically much snow??

I'm thinking of booking for a ski trip in Chamonix first week after new year. Just a bit worried about the snow record .... has anyone been this early before and could reassure me?

Cheers! :P

Never skied Chamonix in early Jan before, sure many people on here will be able to give you a first hand experience of what its like then. But what i can do for you....



Thats over a 13 year period, 1993-2006..... Hope it helps :-)

Oh wow Bennyboy, that looks very clever! Thank you! Also looks quite reassuring - cheers for that!

Would still love to hear some first hand experience if anyone has been early Jan, how was it?

joby wrote:Oh wow Bennyboy, that looks very clever! Thank you! Also looks quite reassuring - cheers for that!

Would still love to hear some first hand experience if anyone has been early Jan, how was it?

We used to be based in the area for a few seasons, it was fine. January was my favourite time, quieter than most of the season.

My favourite time as well :) Lovely and quiet, easy to find accommodation, good snow, no lift queues...

We were in Chamonix from mid December to mid January last year, when the lack of snow in the Alps was a subject of much media hysteria. Well not where we were!

We were sending friends phone pics of us and they were calling back saying "I thought there was no snow in the Alps? I saw it on the telly..."

We've been several times the week after New Year and were planning to do it again next season but the chalet is booked already...might go the week after instead though :)

Normally early Jan is fine and even last year, when the snow came pretty late and it was uncharacteristically warm in the bottom of the valley, its was still ok on the ski slopes. I suppose you always have the altitude in Chamonix, so even in the worst case you can just ski a bit higher.

I found the 13 year average stats v v interesting (thanks to Bennyboy for posting those), cos last year was generally written up as the worst year in living memory, global warming destroying ski industry etc etc blah blah blah. And although the temps at the bottom of the valley were higher than usual, the snow depths on the ski areas were fairly typical compared to the 13yr average.

I kept an occasional blog-like snow report page going last season and if you compare the snow depths to the 13yr average, it wasn't massively different, except for the end of the season when there was way way more snow than average!

beginning Jan: 150cm on upper slopes compared to 160cm 13yr average
end Jan: 180cm compared to 211cm 13yr ave
mid feb: 250cm compared to 254cm
beginning mar: 350cm compared to 293cm
end mar: 383cm compared to 296cm

In case anyone is interested, you can read the full snow report for last season go to http://www.chaletinthemountains.com/snowreport.htm

Thank you so much everyone, I feel really reassured that there will be snow in Chamonix so I'm gonna get some skiing in! Can't wait - so roll on the 6th Jan - wooooo hooooooo!!!