- Chamonix
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France
Chalet Tissières is set in a spectacular location at the foot of the Les Bossons Glacier and close to Chamonix town centre and ski lifts. It has amazing views of Mont Blanc and Aiguille du Midi from the balcony and hot tub. Check out the photos on their website - the sunset is beautiful, hence the name Ice & Orange.
It's family-run with amazing service, modern luxuries/facilities and excellent cuisine and wine - I cannot recommend this place enough. Simply the best week's skiing my friends and I have ever had. Will definitely go back again.
Chalet Tissières
159 Route des Tissières
Les Bossons, 74400
Chamonix-Mont-Blanc
France
www.iceandorange.com
There are two things that are really special about Chamonix: the jaw-dropping scenery and the off-piste skiing. Why stay on the tame groomed runs with the crowd the whole time when you can spice things up with a real mountain adventure?
Use the lifts to get your elevation, then work out of ski area boundaries for fresh snow, long descents, beautiful views, challenging skiing/boarding and solitude.
Or better yet, use skins to climb up where there are no lifts. Or hire a helicopter or a ski-plane to drop you on a nearby peak.
Avalanches, crevasses and other high-mountain hazards mean you definitely want a guide to help you with this. Try www.markseaton.com/ for a great British guide who lives in Cham and knows the area ski options well.
This is a gem of a place, the nicest chalet I've ever stayed in. It had a lovely welcoming feel, so warm and friendly - it was the perfect mountain retreat for us.
It's close to the Flegere ski lift and within staggering distance of some good bars and restaurants (though we spent more evenings in, lazing on the sofas with the playstation or Scalextric!). Lovely views from the balcony and garden too.
Sleeps ten, including a double in the cute mini-chalet in the garden.
Les Praz, Chamonix
www.chaletlaforet.com
Skiing the Agui De Midi on the foot of Mont Blanc is possibly one of the best skiing/boarding experiences that any intermediate or advanced can accomplish.
At the foot of the lift that will bring you back down from this fantastic experience is the South Bar, which I recommend as the best après-ski in the area. The fact that it's a Swedish run bar means that it's full of attractive women and men and there is always quality live music. But best of all is sitting in the downstairs bar watching all the Scandinavians falling and making a fool of themselves whilst coming down the very steep stairs in their ski/board boots. We counted 6 in one hour, one evening. Great fun!
Bottom of the Agui di midi lift station. Go into the Cham Sud apartment area and it's next to Spar supermarket.
www.southbar.se
My money saving idea - lunchtimes on the Alps can cost you between £8 and £25 per day! If you're on a budget ski holiday then make the most of your half-board chalet. 1. drag yourself down to breakfast. 2. add several extra slices of french bread, ham & cheese to your plate 3. create a selection of ham and cheese rolls 4. when no one is looking, take out your serviette and wrap around (discreetly) your freshly made rolls, and hide quickly in a pocket or bag... et voila, enjoy on an uncrowded rock, with a view of your choice... ALL FOR FREE!
The glaciers are retreating, the snow is falling later and more lightly and melting sooner in the spring. If you're going skiing in the alps - TAKE THE TRAIN - it's at least ten times less polluting. And you get an extra day on the slopes...
This is a great two-star hotel (breakfast only - quiet bar) brilliantly located less than 100m from the foot of La Flegere so it's an easy walk even in boots. The Flegere ski area is wonderful for skiers up to good intermediate skill level, with easy access, short queues, a range of eateries and offering wonderful views of the Mt Blanc range to the south. The hotel is simple but very comfortable and cosy and a number of the rooms have balconies with incredible views of Mt Blanc and the Aiguille du Midi.
There are two ski hire shops close by which offer discounts to guests. The free bus stops right outside the hotel so access to the rest of the Chamonix Valley ski areas couldn't be easier. To top it off, there is a truly lovely tree-lined snowy walking trail between Les Praz and Chamonix central (25mins) which winds it's way along the banks of the River l'Arve and is well lit at night - a terrific way to ease those weary legs at the end of the day as you head into town to party.
If you don't want the nightlife, the Hotel Eden (50 metres walk) offers a really good restaurant with a fine wine list. Parking is easy at the Hotel Les Rhododendrons or the hotel staff can organise a pick up from Geneva.
Prices: 53 euros single, up to 118 euros for a quadruple room. Booking is easy, efficient and reliable using the web.
100 Route de Tines, Les Praz de Chamonix, - Chamonix Mont Blanc 74400 - France
Phone: 04 50 53 06 39
Fax: 04 50 53 55 76
www.planigo.com/en/AF328/hotels/planigo-407_3-booking-partner.html
For the best ski or snowboard holiday look no further. I spent last season there and
the staff at Marmotte Mountain made the whole trip. Great skiing and snowboarding is guaranteed and the hospitality was the best I've ever come across.
Without doubt book and go - you will have the time of your life in the most serene environment with a nightlife to get the most party-hungry excited. I can't recommend it highly enough. It is God's back garden.
Marmotte Mountain Retreat, Argentiere.
Tel : +33 (0) 6 82 89 15 23.
www.marmottemountain.com
I stayed here last season and loved it. The chalet is surrounded by beautiful pine forests and the Grands Montets, Chamonix's best resort, is located really close to the chalet. You can't go wrong.
Chamonix is a one-hour transfer from Geneva. Marmotte Mountain Retreat is located at the base of the world-renowned resort of Argentiere.
www.marmottemountain.com
Great new hotel in Chamonix with shop for kit rental, beer garden with it's own climbing wall and a cool bar and restaurant downstairs. Open year round with regular events/parties in the bar.
964 Routes Des Gaillands, on the South side of Chamonix by the lake and climbing wall. www.verthotel.com
Tel +33 0450 531 358
Chalet Lounge is a beautiful old savoyard chalet, with hot tub and sauna and all the luxuries you want after you've been skiing. Tom and Sarah who run it look after you really well and Sarah cooks amazing food. It's in a really great location, about half way along the valley, so you get really good access to all the different ski areas. We can't stay away!
A fine website with 100 or so 5-10 min video clips/narratives on Chamonix & Mont Blanc Massif - follow 'Rubriques/Topos' to get there & enjoy it (they all talk French though)!
Two thousand metres up and with blissful views, La Bergerie serves a very good gratin and decent steak. Those who are squeamish about offal will want to avoid the andouillette (tripe sausage), which is large and horrible.
But if you're willing to wait for service and don't mind paying over the odds for Evian (water has to be hiked up the mountain), it really is a beautiful spot.
At the top of the Planpraz telepherique
Tel: 04 50 53 05 42
A friendly little gem in the centre of Chamonix. It contains all the facilities you could wish for in a small hotel - helpful staff, internet, summer terrace for sunny breakfasts overlooking Mont Blanc.
Rooms at the front have wonderful views towards aiguille du midi.
118 place de l’eglise
www.hotelfaucigny-chamonix.com/
They are a really cool independent holiday company with three chalets in Chamonix. My friends and I have stayed with them for the last three years and have always had a wicked time!
They offer everything from lift passes and airport transfers to great meals and hot tubs for very reasonable prices.
www.freshtraxxx.com, 07000 794795, info@freshtraxxx.com
Extract from my diary... "We all moved outside into the freezing cold, and moved towards the hard ice cliff that we were to traverse, back to the Argentiere Glacier. Split board in ride-mode I followed the silhouettes of our team toward the glacier. The board crashed over ruts of ice, around rocks in what seemed a dangerous delirium as the sun poked his head from behind the crags of rock and powerful ice that was the Mont Blanc Massif.
"We got to the flats of the glacier and stopped to change into walking mode. I looked up the steeps of the Chardonnay Glacier, light twinkling off cravases in blue shards, and I could make out the thin zig-zagged randonnee path we were to follow to the col. I undid my binding, pulled off the steel pin which held my bindings onto the board, tugged at the binding which eventually slid off, split my board into two skis, hooked on the skins, added crampons, levered a binding onto each ski, and then bashed the steel pin back in..."
Check out Boardnlodge on the web who run Haute Route Trips from Chamonix to Zermatt.
Go in summer, then the place won't be full of boring, arrogant middle-class tossers pretending that skiing isn't the most boring, pointless activity on Earth.
All Brits should go do the Vallee Blanche, for sure. Why? Cos it keeps you off the rest of the mountain so people who can actually ski and board properly get to enjoy it.
Otherwise, all you monkeys do is get in people's ways, cut up the powder when it would give so many more people some fresh trax, and generally wipe the snow off faces with your side-slipping! Or at worst, you end up costing my guiding money, cos we've had to abandon in order to come and rope or pull you out of something you're not up to. ...but all mates again in the bar :)
The whole mountain
Chamonix has changed over recent years - either you want to be part of the huge 'Brit Pack' or try to learn and feel the mountains. Whether alone or with family I most strongly recommend (for the price of a few tanks of petrol) hiring a fully qualified French mountain guide (or Aspirant) for a few hours, who will also be a ski instructor. He/she will know exactly where to go and when, get priorities on transport and above all, take as much time as necessary to make you feel and understand the mountains. Their enthusiasm and knowledge is infectious!
If you enjoy each other's company you can probably exchange phone numbers - I skied with a guide and his son by invitation on a Sat morning for a nominal fee. Instead of instruction, my wife was taken to see a recent avalanche and cross and see some snow bridges.
To ski Vallee Blanche in a collective group is just a rush to get the guide home as soon as possible - with your own guide the day is yours and with good relationship you can be taken far away from the crowd in safety in an incredible landscape.
I just give a general warning, that Chamonix's piste gradings (blue/red/black) can be much more demanding than elsewhere!
Bureaux des Guides (Chamonix or Houches)
Three powder fields at the Grands Montets often untouched by the masses, which connect the top and the bottom of the mountain so you can ride/ski for 12km (2km vertical) non-stop; nice! See how many you can do in a day.
From the Les Grands Montets Cable Car, the Hearse Chair, or by traversing from the Bochard Bubble, drop towards Argentiere high on the glacier wall (stay high at all costs). Keep left at the little restaurant/hotel, and then drop towards the trees keeping your direction (if not go left), and then connect back to the home run.
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