 Poster: A snowHead
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I am considering a trip to Chamonix in March (week beginning 16 March). I am an expert my wife is a beginning intermediate (can ski blues and easy reds). I usually put her in group lessons for the morning, meet for lunch and then ski together in the afternoon (past trips Verbier and Val D'Isere worked well for this). A few questions about Chamonix:
1. Can you get by without a car?
2. How hard is it to get from resort to resort (presumably buses are frequent)?
3. Given our different ability levels, are we likely to end up skiing different resorts?
4. Is Chamonix the right choice?
Factors mitigating in favor of Chamonix are high altitude, good snowfall this year, good deal on lodging and the fact that I've never been there.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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chraya,
Personally, I find the Chamonix buses a pain in the ar&e and no they are not as frequent as they should be for a resort/town of this size. Maybe that's because I'm a spoiled Londoner but they are a major factor I have to take into account whenever making a decision about going there. Like most ski bus services they get really really crowded and often have to leave passengers behind to wait for the next one. A car is infinitely preferable if you can afford it.
Sometimes you just have to accept the downside in order to ski this truly awesome place. I find it a bit intimidating due to its reputation and history and the sheer amount of alpine testosterone in the air but there's no doubt it's a place you have to ski at least once in your life.
To (3) I'd say yes.
To (4) no - not to visit with a ski partner who is of a vastly different level to you.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I really didn't like Cham due to the bus and separate ski area hassle factor.
On the first few days our friends had a car and that was fine. Then they went home and it was really crap queuing for a bus, waiting, standing on a packed bus with ski kit etc etc.
I do not think it would be good with the two of you at differing abilities and if she is having lessons in the same place every day it would limit the opportunities for spending time at the different ski areas.
Lots of people love the place tho.
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Chamonix works well for some trips/situations. Yours doesn't sound like one of those though. Perhaps you can share why you were considering it?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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The reasons for considering it were: (1) good offers on lodging the week I am looking at (first choice was Meribel but comparable lodging is about 1,000 euro more), (2) snow depth to date this year, (3) great town, (4) never been there.
If we do it, we will probably do Club Med which offers 5 days of all day lessons and takes care of the different skier level problem.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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chraya, as regards (1) you are outside the holiday period so there should be deals alternatives in several other resorts. (2) that can change - it's over 2 months away. Besides which IME a lot of the bits of Chamonix get plenty of sun, get slushy lower down. (3) & (4) Fair do's. If you are looking for another verbier or Val D in most ways Chamonix will work for you. And there is skiing for all levels there. It's just a bit awkward in terms of skiing separately for half the day. You will want to spend your mornings in the Grands Montets sector while your wife will probably be taken anywhere but there. One of you getting the bus to meet and ski for the afternoon is just a bit of a pain and it sounds like the buses haven't improved a great deal since I last went. But it may be worth it if you like the deal and the town.
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I am going tomorrow. First time. But if you book ski school for your wife and a guide for yourself they will pick you up at your lodgings, so clearly there are ways round the inconvenience. Like you I am different level to my wife, but you are def more advanced than me. However as this is special trip we are staying in nice hotel so she will tolerate my absence for extended periods. You are right it has to be done once. Go for it. You (both) might even like it
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I usually put her in group lessons for the morning
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 Bit like putting a dog in kennels?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Hey, we've just come back from a club med holiday in Chamonix. Travel to the different resorts is laid on by club med as long as you are in ski school.
The different levels of ski school ski at one of the three main ski areas on different days so you wouldn't neccesarily be on the same part of the mountain as each other. Dipping out of ski school 1/2 way through the day is also frowned upon as the ESF instructor is still technically responsible for you and so they don't like it.
Brevent & Flegere - some nice blues and reds but not many and some narrow patches your wife might not like
Le Tour - lovely cruising you could both enjoy
Grand Montets - all reds and blacks, probably too steep for your wife in quite a few places and lots of narrow cat-tracks (also steep!). Great off-piste.
Both Le Tour and Grand Montets are a good 15-20 min bus ride away. To get up to Brevent from the club med hotel you have a tiny walk to a pomma, a long pomma ride up, a tiny ski part way back down and a 5 min walk down slope across an icy car park to a gondola. Takes a good 1/2 hr before you are properly skiing anything.
Chamonix is lovely but for your circumstances I'd go elsewhere - you'll enjoy yourself more. Oh and three valleys would probably be a good bet - or how about Espace Killy???
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Sorry, just read you've done Val D'Isere. How about somewhere in Austria?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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1. Can you get by without a car?
Yes. I'm a profoundly impatient person but I could handle the buses there.
2. How hard is it to get from resort to resort (presumably buses are frequent)?
Buses prob every 15 to 20 mins. Between, say Brevant and Flegere and Argentiere and Le Tour is ok. Argentiere to Le Tour prob less frequent and Les Houches to Argentiere is a pain in the proverbial, basically the full length of the valley, two buses required.
3. Given our different ability levels, are we likely to end up skiing different resorts?
Very. You will want to spend most of your time in North-facing Argentiere (Grandes Montets), maybe some of the time in Brevant / Flegere. You will want to spend much less of your time in Le Tour or Les Houches which would be the resorts most suited to your wife's level, though you could certainly amuse yourself in both for a few hours. Also if you like off piste you will prob want to hit the Aiguille de Midi at some point too.
4. Is Chamonix the right choice?
No. Its certainly doable and you'll have a good time etc., but to do the resort and your ability justice you should come back with another expert skier for a few days, assuming your wife will allow this 
Also re the altitude, there are two high lifts in Chamonix, the Aiguille de Midi which is about 3600m and one of the highest ski lifts in the world, and the top lift in Grandes Montets (think its called Lognan) at about 3300m. The rest of the lifts are all 2800 or thereabouts.
Basically you will only be going up the Aiguille with a guide, unless you're competent in a high mountain environment. Its not a ski lift in any meaningful sense. And the queues for the Lognan lift can regularly be 30 - 40 minutes long (you can book one ride on it per day online using your lift pass code). You have to buy the Mont Blanc Unlimited pass to get either lift which may not make economic sense given how rarely you might end up using it.
So in reality, the bulk of the resort you will actually ski is no higher than most normal resorts. By way of example, I think I've been to Chamonix four times, I'd be an upper intermediate to advanced skier and I love off piste, but I've only done one run off the Aiguille and maybe three runs of Lognan, the latter because I'm simply too impatient to wait when you can just go up the two relatively fast lifts near them (Bouchard and Hearse) and get very good off piste off both.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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chraya, I'd echo several of the above comments. Although I've skied there less in recent years, I skied in Chamonix more than everywhere else put together from my second week on skis for about the next 15 weeks - and the vast majority of that at the Grands Montets. It's the love of the mountains that place instils in you that addicted me to off-piste skiing before I could even stand up in it. As to your questions:
1) no problem, provided you're happy skiing in just one of the sub-resorts per day. Buses go everywhere and fairly regularly. I think I've only skied in Les Houches once in all that time though - as it is a bit out on a limb, and not part of the main pass. It's the best place on a low vis day though, as there's not much in the way of tree skiing elsewhere. Buses do go there from the centre of town, but a car may well be better if you intended skiing there much as there are no direct buses between there and any of the other ski areas.
2) Moving from one to another does waste a lot of time - getting down the mountain, along the valley, and back up another mountain. As others have said, buses run about every 20 minutes, so having a car could save maybe 15 mins in the area shift, but you'll still be taking the best part of an hour to do it. Brevent and Flegere are linked by a horizontal cable-car so this doesn't apply to them.
3) It depends on how much time OH spends in lessons, and how "go-for-it" she is. Chamonix is pretty optimistic where it comes to grading - so a blue there is a gentle red elsewhere, and some of the reds would be blacks elsewhere. For my first few weeks, I was quite happy skiing the 3 blues at Grands Montets over and over again, but it was a challenge - and if she likes variety she'd probably get bored quite quickly. Some nice blues at Brevent, but again only a couple of them. Le Tour is the better area for beginners, and where most of the early lessons are based. There is some good advanced skiing off the back of it for you, but you'd probably not want to spend the whole week there.
4) You'd love it. I loved it even when I was a rookie, but it really is going in at the deep-end (falls beyond count were the order of the day for quite a while). If she's a mountain-woman in the making, she may love it too - I've come across no better place for spectacular scenery to challenge yourself in. But it's not an easy place to gain confidence, and the beginner/intermediate level skiing is limited (much more so than ValD - and a bit more limited than Verbier). So if she's keener on nice coffee stops than challenging herself to the max (sorry - that sounds terribly patronising, but you get what I mean), almost anywhere else would be better  . She'd get a lot more out of it once she's confident on most reds and tackling a few blacks.
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| pam w wrote: |
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I usually put her in group lessons for the morning
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Bit like putting a dog in kennels? |
LOL. Funny but true. Truth is I would put her in all day lessons if I could but the adult group lessons are only half day in most places (unless we do Club Med, which has 5 days of all day groups lessons).
The difference is the dog doesn't like going to the kennel but my wife has always enjoyed the group lessons and made a lot of progress as a result (she only started skiing in 2011).
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You know it makes sense.
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chraya, if you can afford Club Med it sounds like a good idea, as they will provide transport and they will decide where you both ski. You can get together for tea when the lifts close. You could probably get some good tuition off piste too, and/or guiding, within the package.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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chraya, what GrahamN said above is absolutely spot on.
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Poster: A snowHead
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It is a bit of a pain getting between the areas and you can spend a lot of of your day waiting for buses if you chop and change during the day. Far better to pick an area to ski that day then you only have two buses to catch. There are lots of other resorts where there is only one main ski area or skiable links which would suit your mixed abilities better than Chamonix.
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