July 7th, 2008 - Posted by: Powder Monkey

New Lift For Chamonix

For those of you who don’t know already, the Plan Praz cable car, which runs up the sunny side of the valley to the Brevent ski area, is being replaced. And not before time. Last week I had a chance to check out the work in progress. The oldest lift in the valley, with its antique concrete pylons, which closed to the public at the end of the winter, was running last week, presumably to transport men and materials up the steep slope for its replacement. The new lift, a replica of the 3 year old Vallorcine cable car further up the valley, will be able to carry up to 3000 passengers per hour in 10 person cabins. Construction is well underway and we can expect installation to be complete in time for the ski season.

The new state-of-the-art lift will be extremely welcome in Cham, where some parts of the lift system are still embarrassingly ponderous compared with ski factories like Val d’Isere or Val Thorens. That said, in the past couple of years there has been significant development in the valley’s lifts. In addition to the Vallorcine cable car, chair lifts Col Cornu and L’Index have been upgraded to 6 seaters and the Prarion cable car has been replaced. So it seems that the local lift company, La Compagnie de Mont Blanc, has finally realised that it cannot solely rely on its historical appeal as the European home of mountaineering and its reputation as a backcountry Mecca to keep people coming back. But what I want really want to know is how long it will be before we see the back of the painfully pathetic Flegère cable car. It moves so slowly I swear there must be a couple of elderly ladies employed to pull it up hand over hand!

Tags: Chamonix, News from the Alps, Resort Updates, Ski Lifts
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