Evasion Mont Blanc - Megeve/St Gervais/Combloux/Les Contamines - 24/25

A snowHead

W/C 8th should be a bit busier, W/C 15th will be a lot busier.

A snowHead

Historically, is Megeve safe for snow in the first week of Jan? Thinking of booking a week there but a little worried about its altitude.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Depends. As ever..... the village itself is low, and nice fresh snow at that altitude is by no means guaranteed. I've driven through Megeve on the main road many a time, at all points of the season, and a good covering at village level is not guaranteed at any time.

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Not too bothered about the village, just most of the slopes. I am going with a beginner and don't want her to be troubled by the greens/blues not being great.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@Astontech, that week should usually be pretty reliable, though the last couple of years have left people fearful there might be a new "usually".

As @Origen says, picture postcard snow in the village (and it is one that does look good in a picture postcard) is not so frequent. But the skiing starts higher up mostly, and there are green and blue loops available for beginners higher up again if the bottom slopes are suffering.

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You can always scoot up to Les C as there takes less of a covering to be skiable. Will you have a car (CBA reading the whole thread so sorry if you already said)

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I can take a car yes, likely not though

After all it is free

@Astontech, if you are based in Megeve then Les Contamines would be a hassle to get to. But first week of Jan (I assume you mean the first week after New Year) ought to be OK in the immediate area.

@Astontech, the best way to ensure that your beginner has a good time is for her to arrange some ski lessons.

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Yes we will definitely have lessons!

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BTW - 45cm at Signal, Les Contamines today. And snow in the village.

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@jedster, yes snow on the hill in St Gervais too. And even some in the village this morning, though that will probably disappear quickly; more precipitation this afternoon will no doubt be rain at 850m but hopefully thickening the base higher up. The question is whether it will survive the predicted warmer temperatures at the weekend, it would be good if enough remains to keep the ground frozen.

@davidof, I guess in the context of a new ski lift, normalement means "if everything goes to plan". In this case they are advertising limited opening on 14th December - just 3 weeks - which seems tight. I guess they could use a replacement bus for the low numbers likely that first week (that is what they did over the summer) but they really want the lift running the following weekend.

A snowHead

Hoping for a bit of advice please.
I'll be in the area for 5 days of skiing at the end of March next year. I'm trying to decide between basing ourselves in St Gervais or Chamonix. The original idea was to grab a car from Geneva airport but I'm flirting with the idea of not having a car. We definitely want to do the Vallee Blanche so if we stay in St Gervais will have to get to Cham by public transport. I also definitely want to check out Les Contamines. I assume there is a ski bus from St Gervais to Les Contamines?

We would prefer to stay in St Gervais because we've stayed in Chamonix before. Basically what I'm asking is the travel on public transport between St Gervais and Chamonix easy? We don't mind being on a bus or train at the beginning and end of the day.
Thanks in advance.

A snowHead

Get gondola from StG down to train station, get train to Chamonix , one per hour and takes 45 minutes.

To get to LC, it’s the Y84 bus, again about one per hour and takes 15 minutes

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@sbooker, short answer, no.

Longer answer, you can (CHX-StG) get a taxi for iirc about €60 return per head? We’ve done it to dance on the Folie Douce tables. Because, you must.

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@sbooker, get a car. Five days is too little time for any to be lost in getting around.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@davidof, but the lift I was talking about was a new one which, at the time of asking, late autumn, looked very far from being finished. And the one it replaced had been dismantled long before. It was pretty clear that "normalement" meant "if the current schedule comes to pass".

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@sbooker, If you are intending to descend the Vallee Blanche you need to anticipate an early start at the Aiguille du Midi. If conditions are propitious, you will curse yourself for rocking up at 10:30 to find the whole place tracked out by Scandis.
So can you get there for 7:30/8:00 if necessary?

After all it is free

@sbooker, as @Jonny996 says getting to Les Contamines is easy using the Y84 public bus (€3.50 last year, but when we were there last month they seem to have made all fares a flat €1.50). 0835 from the roundabout by the bridge in StG gets to the Montjoie telecabine in LesC for 0900.

(In theory you can do it on the free ski buses, but it involves changing from a StG one to a LesC one at the border between the communes. We've done it a few times for the return journey since there is one that connects well just before 4 pm in a gap between the Y84 services).

Public transport to Chamonix doesn't work as well. There is a bus (Y82) but only a few services a day; the first is 0930 from StG which is too late for a day skiing but does fine for a wander round the town. The new Valleen gondola makes it easy to get down to the station in Le Fayet to catch the train, but the gondola only opens at 0700 and you would probably want to catch the 0705 train ideally. But you could use it to catch the 0808 train which gets you to the Aiguille du Midi base at 0850 (the train isn't fast!) It is possible there are more trains in the ski season, those times are from the current autumn timetable.

Thanks all. Car it is I suppose.

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@sbooker, certainly a car will give you maximum flexibility.

We aren't yet used to how easy it is to get down to the train station with the new gondola, but it does make things practicable that weren't before.

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https://mountaincollective.com/
Also Megeve is now on the Mountain Collective pass which we have for a North American trip in January. It doesn’t matter to me greatly if Les Contamines will be recognised as part of Megeve or not but what is the consensus on that one?

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Quick tour yesterday. (sorry, the file service has rotated the vid after upload)
There were a lot of tourers out and since a couple of runs had been bashed by the pisteurs and they have made a lot of snow so it held up well.

@sbooker, your weblink says it covers 220 pistes and 400km which suggests it is the entire Evasion Mont Blanc pass including Les Contamines.

(Although I think EMB itself claims 440 km, 270 km on the linked Rochebrune and Mont d'Arbois ridges, 70 km for the Combloux area accessed from Megeve via the Jaillet gondola, and then 100 km in Les Contamines needing a drive).

I think I am right in saying that the Megeve local ski area is managed by Compagnie du Mont Blanc which also runs Chamonix and presumably got involved in this deal, but of course EMB covers a much bigger area with lifts run by multiple companies. The only hassle for you will be if your first entry onto a ski lift has to be in the Megeve area for this deal.

You know it makes sense.

I see the big crane at Bettix is down, so they must be making tracks

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@Jonny996, that was quick, it was there on the webcams yesterday. I might see if I can run the sequence.

It doesn't look as if they have finished the roof of the new Bettex top station so a lot to do in two weeks (assuming it will be running for the early opening on 14th Dec).

A snowHead

Is it time to start musing about the Xmas weather yet! Been fairly optimistic with the late Nov snow that arrived and forecasts ahead over the next week or so as well as low temps - so assuming the cannons will be on full tilt!?!

A snowHead

@Moorzee10, yes if you squint at the webcam pictures you can see that Le Bettex has had snow cannons working away on the return runs, as have some other places. They are advertising partial opening 14th December - probably just the runs off the top of Mont d'Arbois - but have a disclaimer that it depends on snow conditions.

On that Bettex webcam I also notice that the portacabins and containers by the lift station have now been removed so fingers crossed the work is finished sufficiently for the new gondola to be in operation. (It is obviously currently running, without passengers, but I assume there is some safety sign-off required based on testing before next weekend).

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@j b, thanks for the update. Looking at the webcams today, looks like a decent dump of snow plus more this evening. Then a good spell of cold temps so no doubt they’ll have the cannons on everywhere. Looking good then for a large part of the domain to be open come Xmas week in your experience of previous years?

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@Moorzee10, yes looked like horrible rain down in town today but falling as snow on the ski area. And snow down to town level overnight.

I think they use artificial snow to create a base on all the main runs so that the depth of natural snow isn't critical. There will certainly be a lot open. The one area that frustrates me not being served by snow cannons are the runs down to the mid-station of the Princesse gondola - they are pretty good runs down through the trees (north facing mostly) but often undone because the point where they join up gets too thin (I guess more west in the aspect there). That sector is in the communes of Combloux and Demi-Quartier and presumably they are in charge of infrastructure, certainly that lift closes when Combloux does somewhat before all the others.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

20cm+ fresh at Bettex today and quickly was 30cm+ by about 1550m. Even with most of the artificial snow still in piles and not spread across the piste it's easy to ski down finance. Should be nice for opening weekend, might even be a top up next Sat.

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At Megeve Rochbrune last sunday I got a peek at the snowmakers control PC - here is a cheeky screenshot of what they were up to - trying to make as much snow as possible to open Olympic, A, Thurn and Arpette when asked.

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@Idris, fascinating though the screen doesn't seem to correspond to geography. Possibly it is a representation of the pipe interconnects of the various snow cannons.

Are the runs off Caboche and Alpette going to open this coming weekend? (Not that we'll be there).

After all it is free

New gare in Saint Gervais is ready to go for opening tomorrow. Afaik the reason there was a risk to L'Alpin not opening on time was that the roof contractor left the project to start another job but it looks like they have decided the roof at the new Bettex is not a pre-requisite.

5 days to go for me, can't wait. Looking great.

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Thanks @devilabit for explaining, I've been peering at that Bettex top station on the webcam and wondering why the roof looks unfinished. And whether it was going to mean they would be bussing people up for this weekend.

Mont d'Arbois looking good.

Good for you @Jonny996, our daughter's term still has another week so we won't get out before Christmas this year.

Help!!

Evasion Mont Blanc - Megeve/St Gervais/Combloux/Les Contamines - 24/25

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