Ski Touring in the Alps
On the Chamonix Experience website you find two ski tours, the Chamonix-Zermatt Haute Route and the West Bernese Oberland traverse. For these trips, we are running groups with set departure dates that you can join.
This page is to let you know that there are so many more ski touring possibilities in the Alps. Regardless of level of experience there are many options and we can make a tailored itinerary suited to your level. All that is required from you is a reasonably good fitness level and a desire to explore, and you will, together with your Chamonix Experience guide, discover some amazing hidden corners of the Alps.
With Chamonix being located so close to the border between Italy and Switzerland, nothing is too far away and you have three countries to choose between which makes the possibilities endless.
There are many mountain refuges, more or less remote and varying in standard. Most of the time they are very good, the food delicious with a welcoming atmosphere.
Something that you will really appreciate, especially if you have already done some of the more popular tours of the Alps, like the Haute Route, is how quiet and relaxed these less known routes and refuges are. You might find yourself going from one hut to another without seeing one single other person the whole day. How nice would that be? Just you and the mountains!
You find below some ideas and a brief description. For more detailed information, please contact our office. Prices depend on number of days, number of participants in the group and where you ski tour.
La Vanoise National Park - France
You might have visited the ski areas of Tignes and Val d’Isere. There is superb ski touring at the back of these areas that you can access from either resort or from the Pralognan valley. There is some easy touring suitable for beginners and for the more experienced ski mountaineer there are challenging ascents and descents like the Grand Casse. You can do 3-6 day tours either from hut to hut or you can use one hut, like Refuge de la Femma, as a base and do day tours from there.
Gran Paradiso National Park - Italy
This area is a little sensitive to snow conditions and can sometimes suffer from lack snow. However when it is good it offers some very nice and relatively easy ski touring and high quality refuges with Italian food and wine. You can do anything from 2-6 days including the 4000m summit of Gran Paradiso.
Haute Alpes - France
This unique area is further south than Chamonix, towards Briançon and Grenoble. It usually gets a lot of snow, so even though it is not very high and has no glaciers, it normally has a very good snow coverage. The refuges are of a very high standard with wood burning stoves and hot showers. You start from a village called Nevache just north of Briançon. There is ski touring for all levels and the area is highly recommended, according to our guides who know it well. Season from January to end of April.
Bernese Oberland East - Switzerland
This beautiful glaciated high plateau at the foot of the Eiger is one of the best ones for late season ski touring. It is normally good until the middle of May. There are several different starting points. You can base yourself at one hut like the Konkordia, and do day tours from there or go from one hut to another as a round trip. There are numerous nice and easy high summits you can climb and ski down.
If you have never tried ski touring….
……..but you would like to give it a go we recommend that you join our 6 day Ski Touring Course. This will give you a very good base of ski mountaineering skills. You start with day tours rather than multi-day tours out in the mountains, which puts less pressure on you. You also get to explore the Chamonix valley with surroundings and ski down a 4000m peak at the end. Not a bad start!
