Chamonix Experience and guide Sébastien ran an off-piste course in Chamonix last week, 23-28 March. We had six enthusiastic participants in the very international team; Marco from Italy living in Australia, Rona and Peter from the UK living in Switzerland, Ulrich from Italy living in the UK, Miles from the UK and Patricia from France. Thank you all for great efforts!
photo-blog Martina Palm 01 Apr 2009 No Comments
The Haute Route is a legendary ski tour – departing Chamonix and traversing the Alps to finish off in Zermatt in the shadow of the Matterhorn. It is a very popular ski touring route, and last week we had a full group of six, led by French Guide Greg Sauget. It was an extremely international group, with Edson from Brazil, Sarah from Australia, Daniel from Israel, Tony from New Zealand, Hannes from Iceland and Arne from Norway. Despite very mixed weather, they made it all the way across to Zermatt and had some beautiful days of great touring and skiing.
photo-blog elizabeth 15 Apr 2008 No Comments
Brothers Alex and Fabian did an Introduction to Ski Touring week with their Chamonix Experience guide Dave Etherington. They spent four days ski touring and exploring different areas of the Chamonix valley to finish off with a ski tour of the Gran Paradiso in Italy. In the Val Savarenche there are no lift so you have to skin from the valley floor. They went up to the Chabod hut where they stayed the night prior to the ascent.
photo-blog elizabeth 15 Apr 2008 No Comments
At the end of the week, the Ski Touring Course participants decided that they should probably stop playing in the lift-accessed powder and get down to some ski touring. Guide Sebastien chose the Rhemes-Notre-Dame valley in the Aosta region of Italy. Leaving Chamonix, they headed through the Mont Blanc Tunnel to Italy. After about a three hour drive, they parked the car, put their skins on and were immediately befriended by a big white furry dog, who then accompanied them the entire way to the refuge! What Italian hospitality…
photo-blog elizabeth 03 Apr 2008 No Comments
This week’s Ski Touring Introduction Course consisted of six participants: Claire, Zoe, Edson, Sarah, Uta and Christoph. Sébastien Laurent was the guide, and had his work cut out for him with an unusual dilemma: we had almost too much snow for safe ski touring! Of course, no-one was complaining as they were forced to do run after run of the white fluffy stuff…..the pictures speak for themselves!
photo-blog elizabeth 27 Mar 2008 No Comments
We have spaces available on an Avalanche Awareness Course that is running on Monday, the 24th of March. If you ski off-piste, or do any backcountry skiing, ski touring or ski mountaineering, your avalanche awareness skills should definitely be up to speed!
A certified Mountain Guide will take you to one of the ski areas in the Chamonix valley and teach you all about mountain safety regarding avalanches: how to read the terrain, taking into account wind, temperature, aspect and weather history; how to ski safely; and if all preventative measures fail, what to do if an avalanche does occur. After learning the practical theory, you will have the chance to do your own searches using avalanche transceivers.
For more info, click here, and to book, click here.
news elizabeth 18 Mar 2008 No Comments
To finish off a fabulous and powder-filled off-piste course, the Off-Pisters decided that they had enough energy to go ski touring. They took the cable car to the top of Les Grands Montets, skied down the Rognons glacier and across the Argentière glacier.
Once across the glacier, the team stopped to put their skins on their skis and then started the sweaty uphill….. (more…)
photo-blog elizabeth 12 Mar 2008 No Comments
There are still places left on the Chamonix-Zermatt Haute Route ski tour at the end of this winter. Chamonix Experience are running weekly trips from the end of March to the beginning of May. This is a fantastic ski tour not to be missed for those who have the ski touring bug.
If you have not yet tried this sport we do not recommend that you go straight on the Haute Route but instead start with the Ski Touring Intro Course. This will take you to many different areas in the Mont Blanc range and finish off with a 4000m summit. Not bad for a start! 
news Martina Palm 27 Feb 2008 No Comments
Opposite Mont Blanc is the Aiguilles Rouges with many ski touring possibilities. Slightly lower and less glaciated but nevertheless challenging.
Starting from the Index chair lift at Flegere you go pretty much straight up. You can skin most of the way but the last little bit is getting a bit too steep and narrow and you are better off putting crampons on and boot packing up. (more…)
photo-blog Martina Palm 10 Feb 2008 No Comments
