Chamonix Valley

A quick late season trip to Chamonix, and hopefully to ski the Vallee Blanche, before heading into Switzerland. We started our stay with a warm up day in Vallorcine/Le Tour. Lovely conditions, weather warm and sunny. Skied down to Le Tour village and enjoyed lunch off-piste. The car park at Vallorcine was able to cope with the volume of customers, though the lift queue at Le Tour was quite awful.










4/4. We were booked to ski the Vallee Blanche today, the guide phoned at 8am and said it was not possible due to the weather, so we spent the day in Les Houches.
We had fresh snow to play in, though the visibility was a little poor. The top section of the Kandahar piste was most enjoyable, with uncut snow down to mid station. The evening saw us revisiting the Guides Office AIGMB, to be told that we would not be doing the Vallee Blanche the next day either. Apparently we don't have enough off-piste powder experience.















4/4 Argentiere. The sun was out and so were the crowds. Good snow up high on the Chamois piste and underneath the Herse chair and GM cable car. Pistes had been refreshed with a little fresh snow, but underneath is rock hard. Skied down to Argentiere, which was rather like water skiing. Walk out through the mud to a very large Orangina.









Vallee Blanche...or not.. A couple of weeks before heading out to Chamonix, I booked a private guide for Wednesday 4th April. On the morning the guide phoned and said no go, bad weather. We were told to call at the Bureau that same evening, where we were told that we could not ski well enough in powder and we should go back the next day. We went back yet again, to be told..."conditions are great and we have no guide available for you" So we asked for a refund. To be honest, the prospect of undertaking the run by now was much less appealing on a public holiday. Think of any Theme Park in any country on a Bank Holiday! The bureau kept talking about us doing the Classic Run as well, something which we had specifically advised them that we did not wish to do. I'm not sure I would go back to Chamonix to do the Vallee Blanche. This was to be an early Birthday present, so I'm either €260 better off, or I've missed out on the trip of a lifetime.

A very sunny Good Friday, takes us back to Vallorcine and Le Tour again to try to avoid the crowds.
It was quieter than earlier in the week, and as the sun was very hot, the off-piste had softened up nicely. We spent around 50% of our time away from the pistes, on some very pleasant slopes. Just in case you are wondering, yes, I did jump off the edge, and land it Our next destination is Seez near Bourg St Maurice.