Were not jealous of the snow here in the UK...honest!
"At the beginning of December the prospects for a good winter in the Chamonix valley were looking bleak; these pictures of a jog along the rivershow there was not a snowflake to be seen at 1100m on the 5th December.We’re pleased to report however, that it is now an entirely different story and snowfall in the French Alps has smashed hundred year records.
There was general chaos as hundreds of tourists flocking to Chamonix for the holidays, grappled with icy roads and parking spots blocked with piles of snow.The Mont Blanc tunnel over to Italy was closed for two days over the new year due to avalanche risk and the pisteurs have been struggling to keep the lifts and runs open. Here at Whitedot skis, however, this is prime testing conditions to really get to grips with how the skis behave in powder, so our team have been skiing hard, testing the new prototype, all in the name of research of course.
Controversially I even broke out my snowboard as metres of untracked, powder just off the sides of the piste was irresistible. (Usually it is either too icy, too steep, too cruddy, too wet or too heavy so it has been a real treat to snowboard in near perfect conditions). I have also been testing a new ski touring set-upready for later in the Spring. Being a bit of a vertically challenged girl, it is really important that I find the perfect balance between a pair of skis which is wide enough to respond well in the powder but which is also manageable for my little legs to get up the hill in the first place.
Obviously, it goes without saying that this amount of snow requires a considerable degree of caution and awareness in terms of being intelligent in assessing the avalanche risk. Conditions this good always demand caution, proper equipment and local knowledge, even if just venturing a little way from the piste. Over the last week alone there has been 2 metres of snowfall in 48 hrs, a thaw cycle and now another metre of snow is falling today (the 5th January) down to the valley floor. So, first task tomorrow morning for team Whitedot when the snow stops is to dig an avalanche pit to analyse the snow pack before heading out with our pro-riders on a back country photoshoot."
Jess
