The Coupe du Monde d’Escalade sets up once again at Chamonix Sports centre - the last day of this coincides with the Chamonix Beer Festival opposite so it’s a great occasion! Watching these amazing climbers move over impossibly overhung faces is an incredible thing to see, the tension is enormous for both the elegance and strength of the”Difficulty” section and the intense acrobatics of the “Speed” section. Here’s a video from a couple of years ago to give you a flavour:
For 2008, the MBC will be hosting the Chamonix beer festival once again! The road will be closed for partying, beers and barbecueing of the legendary MBC burgers, with the party continuing outdoors until 2 am - then it’s all back to the MBC until 4am! This will also be the last day of the World Climbing Championships and the day before Bastille Day, so it should be a fantastic party….
The sunshine has arrived in Chamonix and the flowers this year are the best we’ve had yet, with campanulas, clover, vetch and daisies springing up all around. We’ve added a new hammock stand for the summer which is a wonderful place to relax and watch the mountains. Here are some photos:
We’re very happy to be able, now, to switch to a green electricity provider, and have chosen GEG of Grenoble to supply power to the chalet. Commended by Greenpeace for their investments into small hydroelectric stations and solar power, and their ongoing efforts to improve energy efficiency at their large corporate clients, they are aiming to hugely increase their solar capacity over the next few years. Their EcoAlp tariff supplies clean electricity to the grid equal to our consumption.
Carbon Neutral is a phrase that gets used a lot - I’m not sure that we can every be truly carbon neutral, but certainly this helps!
It’s slightly ironic that Chamonix is an important source of green electricity for EDF, with its power plant at Montenvers, and the water that powers this plant emerges in the dramatic torrent about 400m from the chalet! However, EDF don’t offer a green tariff of any kind.
Chamonix has launched a new blog detailing its efforts to improve the eco credentials of the town. Good news! I heard a while ago that they were going to work towards the ISO 14001 certification, and it’s great to read of some definite steps being taken.
The’ve written a rather lovely statement to start it off:
Because every year we see the glaciers melting…
Because, here, our environment is sacred…
Because we owe everything to Mont Blanc…
Because the mountain is fragile…
Because our environment is sensitive…
Help us to protect our surroundings…
To seek a new balance between development and protection of the mountains.
We hope very much to be working with them in these initiatives, and hope that it proves popular!
We’ll be running the Mont Blanc Cross this year - 21 km of uphill - from Chamonix to Argentiere and then on to Brevent. I suspect we’ll be walking a lot of it but it’s a great spectacle - you can usually see the runners streaming along the track by the river, if you stand on the balcony of the chalet. It’s worth going for a walk along the course though, as there’s generally a good atmosphere, drinks and barbecues and so on.
The marathon runners take a long and amazingly scenic route around the Chamonix valley:
The course profile shows how much climbing there is for the 21km cross course -
It’s one of our favourite times of year - the mountains are still thickly blanketed with snow, while the valley becomes flushed with green and alive with flowers and blossom. We leave most of the lawn as a natural meadow, so the Alpine flowers flourish, and they are just starting to bloom.
These lovely violets are peeping out from the shadier parts of the garden, thriving with the ferns and grass below the pines.
Close up on a single violet flower:
Drifts of Birdsfoot Trefoil are appearing over the garden
There’s a lot of this small yellow flower, which I haven’t identified yet - if you know what it is, let me know…
Forget-me-nots and speedwells are coming up around the hot tub
The “Club des Amis Respectueux des Vallées Alpines”, known as Club ARVA for short, has had a campaign on for some time now to plant trees in order to hide the motorway. Their first success was around the Youth Hostel, which now looks so much better with its new forest of 250 trees, planted by the club.
This beautiful painting is by Martial Bourlot and is on the front of their card - the reverse reads:
Trees for life for the Chamonix Valley
With one euro, ten euros or more, we can hide the route “blanche” (the motorway that sits at the foot of Mont Blanc and its glaciers, cutting the valley in two) and help restore the enchanting splendour of the Chamonix valley. Together we’ll buy a forest :
a larch (mélèze)
a branch
a fir (un sapin)
a rowan (un sorbier des oiseleurs)
an Arolla pine ( un pin cembro)
a needle (une aiguille)
a nest (un nid)
a silver birch (un bouleau)
a rare beech (un hêtre rare)
a hornbeam (un charme)
a Mugho pine (un pin à crochets)
a sequoia,
an oak (un chêne)
a pine cone (une pomme de pin)
the smell of resin (un parfum de résine)
silence,
shade (de l’ombre)
the breeze (du vent)
oxygen
leaves of all shades and colours
a glimmer of hope …
Plant – Hide – Admire – Cherish – Respect – Cultivate – Persevere and Wager that one day man will stop destroying his own nest. As one makes one’s nest, one must curl up in it …
Association Club A.R.V.A 94 Chemin de la Rosière, 74400 Chamonix Mont-Blanc
To donate, you can make a cheque payable to the association Club A.R.V.A, or bank transfer to Credit Agricole de Chamonix, IBAN FR76 1810 60002296 7032 5669 196
6 am on Good Friday 2008 brought the forecast snow - thick, light flakes have been dropping all day. 40 cm were already on the ground this afternoon and there’s no sign of it letting up for a while - the snow is due to continue for the next two days with an amazing 120cm forecast. Adding to the already excellent base, this should now see superb conditions right into April. There were huge grins on the faces of everyone arriving for Easter as the town gets into full swing for the holiday, which looks like being a memorable one for all!
We have one long weekend available in March - check out the special offer late availability deal if you want to grab some of these amazing conditions for yourself!
Teams of resort workers from Chamonix, Zermatt, Val d’Isere, Meribel, Corchevel, Verbier, Engelberg, Val Thorens and for the first time in ten years, Verbier will settle who’s this years king of the bumps.
Always a brilliant event with DJs, barbecue and parties afterwards. Last year Zermatt took home the honours so Chamonix has something to prove for this year!
