chaletlaforet March 2nd, 2008
This freeride and freestyle contest for 12-18 year olds aims to encourage young skiers, with the prize of a contract with North Face on offer at the final. The freestyle will be held at the Grands Montets terrain park and should be spectacular viewing! Open to all, with entries taken the day before.
chaletlaforet March 1st, 2008
Henry’s Avalanche Talks are a great introduction to the risks and rewards of off-piste, and have now moved to the Boule de Neige bar in Chamonix. They are on every Sunday night at 6 pm. Excellent evenings out for anyone interested in off-piste winter sports with good general advice about avalanche avoidance and some jaw-dropping video. Tickets are 8 euros in advance or 10 on the door.
Photos, videos and much more information at Henry’s Avalanche Talk
Avalanche at Fornet, Val d’Isere, 09 October 2007. Photo ©Henry’s Avalanche Talk
chaletlaforet February 19th, 2008
Climbing up frozen waterfalls hadn’t been part of our weekend plans, but after a day’s off piste with guide Neil Hitchings, he suggested that we give it a go. It’s completetely new to us, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to try it out, away from the half term Friday crowds on the pistes.
We all set off to the ice climbing area known as the Cremerie, above the excellent Cremerie du Glacier restaurant in Argentiere, where we got the equipment ready and walked through the quiet forest, past beautiful scupted snow formations on the river rocks, to the frozen waterfalls that we’d be attempting to scale. They were a lot bigger than I’d imagined! This is just the first, small section that we began on. Neil went up first to fix the rope:
Then it was our turn. I was slightly surprised to find myself really enjoying it!
The second section was a lot higher. We clipped into ice screws and waited for the rop to be fixed. Youi can see the curved angle of the ice axes here - once you use them, the shape makes perfect sense, and it’s very satisfying feeling them bite deep into the ice.
Happy to have completed the second pitch safely, we abseiled back down at sunset,
chaletlaforet February 18th, 2008
With sunny skies over Chamonix, we decided to treat ourselves to the Vallée Blanche on February 14th 2008! We went to the Association Internationale des Guides du Mont Blanc office on Rue des Moulins, as we’ve talked to them before and they’ve been very helpful. There, we met up with Neil Hitchings, who’s English but has lived here in Chamonix for over 25 years, and arranged to meet him at 8.30 a.m. at the Aiguille du Midi.
I was very happy to see that the arête (the steep ridge that leads down to the start of the Vallée Blanche) is fully equipped now with sturdy posts and two ropes. We roped up, and carefully descended the ridge. Two paths have now been equipped, which are both very well trodden in.
Once we’d gone a short way, Neil decided to take us down the steeper “Envers du Plan” route. Immediately, the scenery is spectacular, with the trail leading over snow bridges between aparrently bottomless crevasses.
The Petit Envers route had some nice patches where powder had accumulated
before rejoining the regular route below
It’s difficult to convey the majesty of the scenery - the scale is so vast that it defies photography. Probably the nearest to heli-skiing I’ll get this year!
chaletlaforet February 1st, 2008
The second edition of the Swatch O’Neill Big Mountain Pro will see 24 of the world’s best snowboarders and skiers coming together for a competition like no other. Free to roam the European Alps on a search for optimum conditions, the event will embark on a 8 day journey to crown the best freerider.
The event is currently scheduled to be in Chamonix on the 24th Feb 2008 and should be well worth looking out for
More information and videos on the Big Mountain Pro site
chaletlaforet January 25th, 2008
A unique festival of film and photography blended with high level adrenaline sport, the Outdoor Games will make for a fantastic atmosphere in town and around, as five teams compete to make the best short film incorporating BASE jumping, paragliding, mountaineering, skiing and snowboarding. Chamonix 2008 will be the first Winter Outdoor Games and it looks like it’s going to be brilliant.
With six days, each team of ten athletes, a photographer and a camera operator will produce the movie and present it to be judged at the end. Twenty photographs from each team will also be judged.
Don’t miss the displays of wingsuit flying, introduction to ice-climbing and more events surrounding the festival - complete programme of events here
Video trailers, photos, profiles of the teams and more details of the events at the site:
http://winter.outdoorgames.org/
chaletlaforet January 25th, 2008
Je suis végétarien / végétarienne
The Alps are a surprisingly good place for vegetarians - as long as you like cheese.
The staples of melted cheese in all its forms - fondue and raclette are the best known but there are many more - are combined with potatoes or pasta in countless ways. As a result, although the French don’t really go in for vegetarian food per se, there’s always lots of options without meat - though do beware of the onion soup as it will almost always be made with meat stock.
Also, a lot of this cheese is not made with vegetarian rennet, certainly in restaurants. However, you can buy cheese made with vegetable rennet fairly easily, in both the supermarkets and the health food shops. The soft goat’s cheese is also not made using it - this mild, fresh cheese is wonderful with the local honey which is, unsurprisingly, superb.
Almost everywhere does the local salad of toasted goat’s cheese on slices of bread with salad and walnuts, which makes a really nice lighter meal - Chambre Neuf does one of the best Chevre Chaud salads in town
Since pretty much every French restaurant in Chamonix has a reasonably good vegetarian choice due to the local obsession with cheese, I haven’t made a separate vegetarian list for the town - take a look at those recommended for vegans below for places with particularly good or more unusual menus.
On the slopes, things are again not too bad with cheese sandwiches (toasted or not) always on offer, and hummus sandwiches and veggie pastas, quiches, gratins and pizzas usually available. Ski area restaurants which have a particularly good veggie choice are:
At Les Grands Montets
The Cremerie du Glacierat Les Grands Montets, which you can either drive to (signed from the car park entrance, look out for the heliport signs as it’s right next to it) or ski/snowboard access through the woods from the Pierre a Ric piste (look out for the very small sign on the right near the end of the run). Specialises in Croutes, a kind of bread-based local pizza equivalent, and a wide selection of Gratins which they will happily do for you without meat. Lots of veggie choices including my personal favourite ‘Crozets’ (which is the local buckwheat pasta) baked au gratin with Morel mushrooms and Beaufortain cheese. mmmmm! Some of the croutes are in a creme fraiche based sauce which is good when you’re a bit over-cheesed.
Also at the base of Les Grands Montets is the Marmottons restaurant and bar which has a small but very nice veggie selection including spinach lasagne which I highly recommend.
Vallorcine has a brilliant restaurant in the train station, which is very close to the lift. L’Arrêt Bougnette (+33 450 546304) serves unusual Savoyarde specialities like Sarrazin (buckwheat) crepes as well as all the usual favourites to a mostly local crowd. Inexpensive, atmospheric and delicious, the menu varies but there’s normally plenty of vegetarian dishes. Worth either calling or dropping in to book, as it can get very busy.
Je suis vegan
…Or an equivalent French word as far as diet is concerned is végétalien.
Skiing and snowboarding vegans will probably prefer to bring sandwiches for actual on-piste eating (in fact a lot of people do this anyway as it saves a load of money). Most of the restaurants on the mountain do salads by the quarter which are sometimes suitable, and tomato-based pasta sauce is sometimes available, as are soups - but it’s probably best not to count on it.
Chamonix restaurants that are good for vegans:
In town, things are much better! There are several restaurants that either have vegan options available or will do a vegan menu if you contact them in advance, notably Munchies (Rue des Moulins, Chamonix. Tel: +33(0)450534541), Alan Peru and the Hotel Eden.
Otherwise, Casa Valerio is an excellent Italian that has some vegan pasta dishes, Satsuki is a very good Japanese place that does good tofu noodles and has with a lovely downstairs room that can be booked for a special occasion. There are two Indian restaurants, Tigre Tigre and Annapurna.
The much loved MBC does excellent tofu - I especially recommend it in their red curry - and also can adapt several other dishes for vegans, such as their fajitas.
Most of the wrap and sandwich places in the town centre do a vegan option (generally hummus), with a special mention to the lovely bagels at the recently relocated Grand Central, where you can also get fresh juices.
Self-catering vegans will be very happy as the quality of fresh produce in France is always great. In Chamonix itself, there’s a very nice wholefood shop called Biosphere in Chamonix-Sud, for more specialist products like tofu, and another in Les Houches.
Even the supermarkets carry basics like veggie burgers now. For a longer stay, I really recommend a visit to the excellent Satoriz wholefood supermarket in Sallanches, opposite the Carrefour (link to map here).
This is an excellent shop, along the lines of Whole Foods in the US, and if you’re going to be around for more than a few days, it’s well worth a visit - the staff are very friendly and helpful, and the quality superb. They do a good selection of wine as well.
Market day is Saturday and there are sometimes local organic and biodynamic farmers selling lovely fresh produce. The supermarkets are very good too, and usually have a selection of French organic vegetables.
chaletlaforet December 23rd, 2007
All areas opened fully on the 22nd December 2007 with fantastic snow. We decided on Brevent for the day - here’s a couple of photos….click through for bigger versions which are well worth a look!
chaletlaforet December 20th, 2007
Amazing early season snow blanketed the valley this Christmas, so we’ve taken some photos to share the magic! Click for larger versions on Flickr.
chaletlaforet December 20th, 2007
Great news that the terrain park has returned to Les Grands Montets for 2007/8, and with the fantastic early season conditions, they’ve been able to get it going much sooner this year. It’s on a similar pattern to last year with a graded runs through a good variety of jumps, nicely paced and a couple of rails, and no doubt more will be added as the season progresses. There will be another terrain park at Les Houches this year as well.
Some photos of the park on Dec 18th 2007 - click to see them larger on Flickr
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