Skiing is Believing

The Grands Montets sector of the Chamonix ski area opened a week ago for weekend skiing. Chamonix is the latest French ski resort to open ahead of schedule thanks to heavy and frequent snowfalls across the Alps in November. It began snowing again in Cham on Thursday and it dumped in earnest on Friday, so the snow up at Grands Montets was sure to be deep come the weekend. However, people-in-the-know know that the GM is not necessarily the best place to be on a powder day because the steep terrain attracts swarms of snow-hungry, powder-pillaging skiers and boarders. What’s more, Saturday’s forecast announced 0% visibility so, since there aren’t too many trees at GM to help you judge the lay of the land in a white-out, we decided to head further a field.

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Tags: Chamonix, Courmayeur
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Ski Resorts Open Early across the French Alps!

The French ski season is gathering momentum with more and more resorts announcing that they will open earlier than planned thanks to last weekend’s mega dump of snow. And it seems the snow wealth was evenly distributed right across the Alps.

It’s been a sub-zero week in Chamonix and the early snow is hanging around, even at resort level, so I will be skiing locally this weekend. The Compagnie du Mont Blanc, who manages the lifts in the valley, has announced a partial opening of the Grands Montets, and Chamonix’s Italian resort partner, Courmayeur has followed suit. Chamonix’s former French partner, Les Houches, is also due to open tomorrow.

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Tags: Alpe d'Huez, Chamonix, Courmayeur, Deux Alpes, Les Houches, Meribel, Tignes, Val d'Isere, Val Thorens
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It’s Dumping with Snow in the French Alps!

After a superb day on the hill in Verbier yesterday, spirits were really high about an incredible snow year in the making. And this morning I awoke to these snowy scenes in Chamonix.

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Tags: Chamonix, Val Thorens, Verbier
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Is This the Best Start to the European Ski Season Ever?

The snow fell in abundance this weekend right across the Alps. Here in Chamonix we got as much as anywhere but we are still waiting on the lifts to open. The lifts usually open at weekends as soon as the conditions are good enough and at the moment the official line from Compagnie du Mont Blanc, who manage the lifts in the valley, is that they aren’t. The advance purchase of my season pass wasn’t wasted though as Chamonix’s Swiss resort partner Verbier is open for business.

We’d heard that the lifts in Verbier had been shut all day on Saturday due to high winds and the forecast for today was for more of the same, so when we set out we didn’t have very high expectations. But fortunately this time the forecasters got it wrong: no wind to speak of, hardly a cloud in the sky and 20-30cm of fluffy, light powder.

Check out this video of Powder Monkey doing what she loves best.

November 23rd, honestly.

We skied Verbier in November last year and thought it was pretty special but today really was something else. Given today’s awesome conditions and skiing the powder in Cervinia 2 weeks ago, I am wondering if this is the best start to European ski season EVER…

Tags: Cervinia, Chamonix, Verbier
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Skiing Powder in November

The early snowfalls across the Alps have got us chomping at the bit in resort. But it’s kind of premature to get excited about skiing here in Chamonix since the lifts don’t open officially until Christmas week. So what are 9 snow-starved Chamoniards to do with themselves of a weekend? Organise a little day trip, of course. We heard a rumour that in Cervinia, over the border in Italy, up to a metre of snow had fallen on the upper slopes in recent days. So on Friday night we dug our kit out of the back of the wardrobe, got to bed nice and early in order to rouse ourselves at 06.30, be on the road by 07.30 and be on the slopes by 09.30. The car park was pretty full when we arrived in resort. Word had clearly got out. But the mountain did not disappoint.

Click more for video evidence of the unbelievable snow conditions.

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Tags: Cervinia, Chamonix
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