Chamonix - Snow Report

I met Simon on the train at Clapham Junction and we made great time to the airport. We were the first people to check in and we then leisurely strolled through customs. Was disappointed to remember that there is no Starbucks at Gatwick South Terminal…

With the Youngs pub being refurnished we had no choice but to sit down for a quiet coffee. This was where we played our first hand of Euka. Simon lost and would continue to loose every time for the entire trip. I stopped counting after the score was 10-1.

Our Easy Jet flight was on time and we landed in Geneva – We tried to pick up our hire car but we were in the Switzerland part of the airport and we needed to be in the French part. Made our walk through some checkpoints and we eventually found our car.

Now in the past – I normally pickup and drive my car to Chamonix from Switzerland – when you pick the car up from France it’s a little bit tricky with the navigation… Long story short we took a motorway turn which pointed us towards Leon. If you look at a map Leon is in the direction of Chamonix from Geneva. Well, apparently you can go West or East to Leon! After about 30mins Hurtling down the motorway towards Paris we realised our mistake. We managed to turn around at a toll – the only consolation was it looked like we would not get charged a toll for the use of the magnificent French motorway. We were wrong here as well – its time based and we had to spend an unnecessary 19.10 euros.

We eventually arrived about 12:30am, found our minimalist apartment and bedded down for the night. The rental place opened at 8:15am and Simon would be there to greet them.

With all our gear sorted we made our way to “Brevent” – This ski resort sits on a plateau above Chamonix town. This resort is quite wide with rolling hills, fantastic resort to warm up on for the first day. We boarding from 9:30 – 4:00 with a short 30min lunch break. We were shattered at the end of the day but with La Tour beckoning the next day we set our alarms to 7:10 to ensure we hit the first lift at 8:30.

We drove the 15mins to the base of La Tour. We were in the parking lot getting our boots on when an attendant approached us and let us know that the gondola would not be running today. Not a problem for us as we had a car and were able to drive 15 mins around the mountain to a small town which also linked to La Tour (My Favorite in Europe). The good thing here is the Chamonix bus service would not come to this gondola – result being virtually the entire mountain to ourselves! Boooyyaaaa!

We were on the first lift of the day (Actually about 15 mins late – but not our fault). The runs in La Tour are so varied and the tree lined runs are truly spectacular to board on! The off-piste at the back of La Tour is truly incredible as you can basically go anywhere for what seems like miles and you always link up with a track further down. You have to see it to believe it. We found a nice area to practise our jumps and Simons first effort seemed to have him doing a double spin in the air before he hit the deck. We boarded from opening to closing and had no choice but to leave the mountain when they closed the lift on us.

At this point our bodies were in surprisingly good shape – although my back did start feeling the strain by the time we got back to our apartment. Out came the deep heat and I thankfully became blissfully ignorant of the pain.

The next day was the insanely hard Grand Montet (90% black runs) – we were there for (you guessed it) first lift. It is great feeling when pulling in to the empty carpark in the poor morning light – gazing up at this so imposing mountain! I love it.

We jumped on the Gondola and headed up – at the top we jumped on another Gondola and headed up again. When we reached a height of 3800 meters we strapped on our boards and attacked the mountain. We hurtled down, parallel to the gondola and quickly made our way to the mid station we then vered right and started our descent on the “Piera-Ric” – my favourite individual run in the Chamonix valley. This run hugs the cliff and descends all the way to the town of Argentiere. We then headed straight up the mountain again but this time taking a chair to the other side of the mountain.

After a few runs my back was starting to ache a lot and the pressure of holding the turns on the steep runs was starting to get me down. So we boarded down the Piera-Ric and headed over to La Tour for the afternoon. Once again – brilliant conditions and another long day.

On our final day we slept in and only made it to the mountain for a late 9:30am start – we headed to Brevent and for the first time on the trip we had clouds! By mid-afternoon you could barely see 5 feet in front of you! Not a problem though as our time was up and we had to return Simons gear and head back to Geneva.

This time we did not make a wrong turn in getting to the airport but we did try to check our car back in to the Swiss side of the airport instead of the French. After some bizarre directions we managed to find the correct location to return our car.

It was a brilliant short holiday and the boarding was fantastic! I have posted a few photos on Picassa Web Albums’.

http://picasaweb.google.com/richardgnz/Chamonix2008