For a little flirting with adventure, to push your limits and go where you never thought you would before, Chamonix is the perfect place to wind-up. With absolutely massive mountains and terrain that might make you cry a little, this is the place where ski socks come to be knocked off and personal limits come to die.
Ride up the highest cable cars in Europe and stare down the long, hard body of Mont Blanc. On good snow days, it’s powder galore. On not so good snow days, it’s trees, and chutes and steeps and then fast groomers all the way to the button cute village. French and fabulous, it has everything a hurting skier needs to revamp for another day of bodily sacrifice for emotional victory. From the warmth and comfort of the village, it is hard to imagine what lies above. But as you head up, up and away, your eyes widen out of necessity to enable you to take in the vistas and grandeur of it all.
The locals and ski bums around here reign supreme. These devotees have learned the tricks and trades of taming and touring the snowy beast of Chamonix. Hire a guide. It’s well worth the Euros and you will really get to experience what this place is all about. Leaving the relative safety of the trails behind, the guides take you to some intense traverses, scare the shit of you, and then introduce you to pitches and powder and chutes that never end. The kind of long powder runs that you attempt to tackle in one go but most stop several times, shaking, cramping, sweating, catching your breath and regaining leg strength before you continue on some more. Yes, it really is a skier’s wet dream.
There are a lot of skiers who know this terrain and they come prepared. With peeps and shovels and crampons and other safety hard wear, they are physically prepared, but most importantly, they have the knowledge and know-how to make it around as safely as is possible on a giant mountain. But Chamonix has claimed her fair share of lives. In fact she has a long violent history and has swallowed climbers, hikers, skiers and adventurers for several hundred years.
Though Chamonix definitely attracts skiers of the most committed kind, you don’t have to call yourself an expert to come out and play. There are lots of runs for everyone. The mountains are so vast and varied that they have everything you could want or need. The only downfall, when the snow is shitty, it can be pretty icy and windblown especially up top.
For shopping, eating, and drinking, Chamonix is tops. Expensive like French things just are, you can find some deals but also some strangely luxurious ski accessories if that’s your bag. For food, you’re in France - only the most famous gastronomical country in the world. And for attitude, that famous French snobbery will make you feel un-welcome, yet right at home because you expect it, all at the same time. Just don’t try to speak French (even if you speak French Canadian, they will make fun of you) or argue that anything in France is not the best in the world and you will make friends. Order a digestif after dinner to show you know what’s up, always, always wear a scarf and do the rest of the talking with your turns. Ski bum bonding is sure to follow. Vive La France.
