TR: Chamonix Day 1 – Les Grands Montets

The day began like all days to early in a European ski trip – with Jet Lag. Wide awake at 4am, having decided that further attempts to sleep were futile, it was time to get up. After about 3 rounds of breakfast it was time to head into town to get all our gear sorted and make our way to Les Grands Montets.

But first the obligatory statue pose in the heart of Chamonix:

To make most what is on offer here, we have made the move to AT gear – remounting our trusty Gotamas with Dynafit bindings and moving in to Dynafit boots, also buying skins, touring poles etc, to add to all the avalanche safety equipment that was purchased over here last year.

But that meant that our first turns since October would be made in new boots, never a fun combination. The boots went about as well as new boots can, and we are quite a lot more fit than the same time last year, but the skiing was still not much to rave about. A few groomers in the morning, then some lunch followed by a tram to the top of the Grands Montets. While our skiing may have been ordinary, the scenery certainly wasn’t, so let’s focus on that for the moment!

The Chamonix Aiguilles, with Mont Blanc obscured in the background:

L’Aiguille du Midi:

L’Aiguille d’Argentier & Chardonnet – the col in between is the starting point of the Haute Route ski tour from Chamonix to Zermatt – a definite future goal:

The Argentiere Basin:

All smiles:

As I type this, it is another ungodly early start, but I sit here watching the snow fall out the window wondering what Jerome will have in store for us today.