Info:      

Office de Tourisme
Chamonix - Mont-Blanc
85, place du Triangle de l'Amitié
BP 25
F-74400 Chamonix, France

Web: www.chamonix.com

Phone:              (+33) 04-505-300-24

E-Mail: info@chamonix.com

Vallée Blanche
Walking and Mountaineering Office of Chamonix
Maison de la Montagne
190, place de l'église
74400 Chamonix Mont-Blanc, France

Web:
www.ohm-chamonix.com

Phone:
(+33) 04-50-53-22-08

E-mail:
ohm-info@chamonix.com

Atout France/France Tourism Development Agency
825 Third Ave., 29th floor
New York, NY 10022

Web:
www.franceguide .com

Phone:
514-288-1904 (NYC)
310-271-6665 (L.A.)
312-327-0290 (Chicago)

E-mail:
info.us@franceguide.com

Lift Tickets (all access):
1 day: €49.50
5 day: €216

Vallée Blanche Guide Service:
about €73/pp, plus lift ticket for one day; multi-day packages and group rates available

 Skiing France - Chamonix                              

Scary Stuff: Skiing the Legendary Vallée Blanche

by Mitch Kaplan
photos by Mitch Kaplan

I was about to ski the legendary Vallée Blanche in Chamonix, France with three colleagues and a guide named Olivier—if I could bring myself to hike down to the ski run’s start.

Getting there required stepping along a narrow ridge while clutching a safety rope with you-fall-you-die plunges on both sides.

Heck, I'd been scared breathless since boarding the first of two cable cars that travel to the summit. I couldn't even bring myself to look down—no less walk down—from this 12,000-plus foot rock formation called Aiguille du Midi.

I'd traveled to Chamonix under the aegis of France Tourism. But, mountain adventurers are lured here from all the world. Indeed, modern mountaineering was pretty much invented here in the nineteenth century when some Brits decided that Mont Blanc, Europe’s highest peak, simply had to be scaled. Soon, the little town, hidden in a deep, narrow valley, became the hub for all who would climb, slide or just stare at some of the world's most majestic, rugged mountains.

Today, Chamonix is a small city. That surprised me. I was expecting the typical ski resort with A-frame architecture and slopeside condominiums. Instead, I found a bustling little metropolis with multi-story buildings, busy streets and myriad shops, restaurants, bars and nightspots.

And, there are urban-style delights. The main pedestrian-only street fills in evening with a cacophony of languages, alluring aromas, and club music. Culture, history and science are honored in museums like . . .

• Espace Tairraz—currently featuring an "Of Glaciers and Men" exhibit
• Musée des Christaux—showing Minerals from Mont Blanc within Espace Tairraz
• Le Musée Alpin—for Vallee Blanche history

s like l'église Saint-Michel and a picturesque 18th century train station. Toss in a casino and a huge sports center housing tennis courts, swimming pools and a fitness center, and you've got just about anything your vacation demands.

Still, no matter how you choose your Chamonix focus, Mont Blanc and its attendant jagged ridges hover above. You might find them alluring, intimidating or just beautiful. But, you can’t ignore them.

The Vallée Blanche                       

And any longtime, die-hard skier who comes here, no matter how nervous, will succumb to the lure of skiing the Vallée Blanche, a.k.a. le mer de glace (sea of ice). It’s billed as the ultimate ski experience. And, guess what? It is.

You can't take this challenge casually. You’re skiing a glacier at high elevations. Glaciers are rife with hidden crevaces and avalanche zones. High elevation weather is notoriously changeable. You must hire a guide. French guides, trained in all aspects of mountaineering, keep you safe

But, first, you must answer that initial challenge: walking (or should I say trying not to stumble) down a narrow ridge to the ski run’s start.

Olivier roped us together. Fortunately, the snow was soft and we didn’t need crampons; but had they been required, he would have supplied them. Then, after emerging from a long tunnel cut into the rock, we grabbed the safety rope and joined a kind of a skiers’ conga-line.

I clung to it for dear life. On both sides the mountain dropped thousands of feet at a horribly precipitous angle. Incredible view. If you could look.

I couldn’t. I suffer vertigo. Looking at anything beyond my feet would have caused a swoon and, well, who knows.

One nerve-wracking step at a time, I lowered myself several hundred vertical feet.

After 20 minutes, we landed on a small plateau crowded with people collecting ropes, removing crampons, stepping into bindings. By then, I’d depleted whatever energy I’d had. I sweated profusely. I gasped for breath. I swilled water.

Now we could begin skiing.

If I could handle the first turns—two sharp maneuvers on a sheer rock face. Again, oblivion loomed on both sides. Some warm-up.

Getting Better All the Time                           

Beyond that, finally, the snowfields opened, and the joy could bubble through. Huge pinnacles shot up all around us, cut by narrow chutes. Olivier regaled us with stories of skiers’ first descents on those impossible looking paths.

The snow was thick, not really fresh. The pitches weren’t overly steep, although routes could be chosen that increased the challenge. The elevation wrecked havoc with my New Jersey flatlander’s lungs and, at times, I had trouble keeping up with the group. But, there’s no reason to rush this experience. It’s an all-day affair. The only demand is that you reach the glacier’s end in time for the last train back to town.

Two-thirds of the way, we detoured into a small hut where, incredibly, delicious Alpine food was served. This is so illustrative of the continental ski experience. You ski to some tiny, rather decrepit looking shack impossibly set on a nearly inaccessible hillside atop a cliff, and inside they’re serving gourmet fondues, raclette, hearty meat dishes, beer and fine wine.

The final stages of this frolic proved easy-going, cruising on gentle terrain, through an ever widening valley, highlighted by small detours into ten-foot-wide crevaces to frolic on single-track mini roller coasters and emerge with a jump.

One Last Challenge then Back to Town                            

And, the final reward? A cliffside climb up 100-plus steps. It's the only way to reach the train back to town.

Exhausting? Yes. Enthralling? For sure. It’s a rite of passage for die-hard skiers. I’m glad I did it. I doubt I’d do it again.

Fear not, however. All Chamonix skiing is not like this. There’s terrain for everyone. There are, after all, four major ski areas here, and free busses to all the slopes.