Alpine Climbing & Skiing: Frost Guiding Blog

Grimentz last week - as usual, it was excellent. Based at the lovely Chalet Roux, the plan was to explore the off-piste and touring in the area. The holiday crowds went home on the Sunday leaving the place strangely quiet. There was a much-needed 20cm of fresh snow too, followed by blue skies and perfect touring weather (if a bit chilly!). Grimentz and the Val d'Anniviers are very much "on the map" for most skiers nowadays, and continued investment in the lift system will surely increase the number of skiers visiting, but it's still deserted in comparison to the big ski resorts. On Thursday and Friday we saw more chamois than skiers - that's 10 chamois and zero skiers!

Happy New Year everyone! And please, please, please can we have more snow? The ski season got off to a great start with fantastic conditions in December once the usual early-winter avalanche risk settled down a bit.

Things have stayed good up high over the holidays and it's been a great start for many ski resorts with lots of skiers enjoying the perfect weather. It's been warm and clear for 2 weeks now.

Touring conditions are amazingly good for this time of year, but you'll need to look hard for good lift-access off-piste unless you like skiing bumps! It's still out there though...