Last year, October was a great month for alpinism with steady settled weather right the way through. The Jorasses in particular got a hammering as folk ran up things like the McIntyre Colton.
I was big walling in the States last year so missed all the fun. I was really looking forward to staying at home, saving some carbon and doing some Alpinism, but winter has arrived early! We have 10cm of fresh here at 1140m, so winter has most definitely arrived. The weather lore experts here all predict a cold spell from now on - lots of myrtilles this autumn, the size of the potatoes in Lavancher (seriously!) - whether it's wishful thinking or based on aeons of tradition, we can all start to get excited about the ski season.
The winter is going well - a big snowfall before Christmas has put down a good base, and from that time until today, the weather has essentially been very stable, consolidating the snowpack in many areas. Compared to last year the coverage is excellent, with sking possible to valley level in most resorts around the Chamonix area.
However, there are some pockets of surface hoar lurking out there and we have 30 to 50 cm of fresh on a strong westerly wind due in the next couple of days. Stand by for some rhino action, though luckily Cham is fairly quiet at the moment.
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