So all you back in Tahoe must think you’re pretty cool, having received like a thousand feet of snow in the past couple weeks. But here’s the fact of the matter: you aren’t. Here in Chamonix (where the locals are claiming the worst winter in 40 years), you can still have a blast. Simply looking up at the massive mountains around here is amazing.
Only in Europe can you ski to three different countries in three days. From the top of the Aiguille du Midi it is a short skin across some glaciated terrain to Italy, from there you have one of the gnarliest staircase down climbs known to man. Once back on snow you’re rewarded with 1500 vert of beautiful corn snow, eat lunch on the tram deck in Italy, then take the tram back to France.
Heading further up the Chamonix Valley, to the resort of le Tour, the trip to Switzerland is even easier. A short ten minute boot pack from the top of the Tete de Balme Chairlift lands you at the top of a rad couloir which you can ski all the way down to a little town in Switzerland, with a nice scenic train ride back to cham.
When you’re not busy skiing to different countries to have a delicious lunch of cheese, bread and sausage, there is still plenty going on. Saturdays lend the most rad Farmer’s Market you’ve ever seen (could just be because it’s in France) . The smell of stinky French cheese permeates the market where you can find fresh veggies, home made sausage, rotisserie chicken, dried fruits, useless souvenir trinkets, oh yeah…and Cheese!
Rumor is that over 30 centimeters fell at the top of the midi last night and with more wet weather today we could be seeing pow in the days to come. Maybe we won’t even have to ski on man made strips of snow back to the base area! Stay tuned for more tales from Chamonix!!
