Chamonix Chalet news

News from Chalet la Foret in Chamonix

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Les Grands Montets - Chamonix’s Terrain Park returns

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

Skier in the terain park at les Grands Montets

Snowboarder at Les Grands Montets terrain park

Chamonix ski passes with massive early season discounts

chaletlaforet December 11th, 2007

From December 8th to 21st 2007, when you buy a one day Mont Blanc Unlimited pass - which includes all the lifts in the valley, and costs 47 euros - you can get the day after for one euro! A really good deal, especally as it includes the Aiguille Du Midi.

They are also offering the “Chamonix Le Pass” for a reduced rate of 27 euros, so it’s a great time to get out and take advantage of the brilliant early winter snowfall at a discount price.

Families will be pleased to see that the very popular family offer has been continued this year. Two adults pay full price, the first child pays half price, and the rest of the kids are free!
More details on the Compagnie du Mont Blanc site.

The arete

STEEP: Extreme skiing movie shot in Chamonix

chaletlaforet December 6th, 2007

We’re really looking forward to seeing this movie, which charts the story of extreme skiing from amazing vintage film of Anselme Baud and Patrick Valencant, via the groundbreaking Chamonix footage of “The Blizzard of Ahhs” in 1987 to the full life and tragic death of Doug Coombs.

These photos from the STEEP film site look fantastic, and US release dates are on the site now so let’s hope to see it in Europe soon.

Ski mountaineer on vertical cliff

Skier descends mountain face. Photo by Chris Noble © 2007 High Ground Productions, LLC courtesy Sony Pictures Classics. All Rights Reserved.

extreme skier jumping cliff

Skier making jump. Photo by Chris Noble © 2007 High Ground Productions, LLC courtesy Sony Pictures Classics. All Rights Reserved.

Trailer for Steep (There is a larger version available on their site )

Interesting video interview with the film makers from the Tribeca film festival:

STEEP film site

Chamonix discount lift passes extended to Dec 2nd

chaletlaforet November 25th, 2007

The Compagnie Du Mont Blanc has extended the discount ski pass offer until December 2nd. These can also be ordered online, for the first time.

If you will be going for a fortnight or more, these are well worth taking advantage of, with 10% off the ten day packs, and 15% off the 15 day packs, with the discount rising to 35% on a season or year’s Unlimited pass.

Full details here, on the Compagnie Du Mont Blanc site.

Les Grands Montets opens this weekend!

chaletlaforet November 22nd, 2007

A fantastic start to the 2007/8 season in Chamonix, as Les Grands Montets has confirmed it will be opening this weekend. More snow is forecast throughout the week and the lifts will be opening every weekend from now on.

View of Mont Blanc from the top of Les Grands Montets…
Icicles

North Face Ultra Trail hits Chamonix this weekend

chaletlaforet August 24th, 2007

In three days, 2,000 participants race around Mont Blanc over 155 km through three countries - France, Italy and Switzerland), over ten mountain passes, 2000m altitudes and an elevation gain of 8500m - with 45 hours to finish!

The start and finish are both in Chamonix, and there are other events going on, including a 24 hour race, so the place will be buzzing more than ever over the August long weekend, with other festivities along the route as it passes through the valley. And there’s sure to be some big celebrations going on after the prizegiving in Chamonix on Sunday….

http://www.thenorthface.com/eu/news/news-20070105.html

The Chamonix Fête Des Guides - 12th to 15th August 2007

chaletlaforet August 1st, 2007

Every year, this festival celebrates the mountain guides of Chamonix.

This year it’s from the 12th to the 15th August, with the big night of music, son et lumiere and fireworks at the Gaillands on the 14th. It’s loads of fun with a great atmosphere, and for a very good cause - the Guides Emergency Fund - so if you’re in Chamonix try and make it along. There are also more traditional ceremonies like the blessing of the ropes and ice-axes if you prefer, but it’s the show on the cliffs of the Gaillands that’s generally the scene-stealer.

Chamonix Fête Des Guides

Chamonix terrain park at Les Grands Montets

chaletlaforet December 10th, 2006

The new snowpark in Chamonix will be at Les Grands Montets, approximately where the boardercross used to be, by the Marmottons piste

It’s being built by h.o.5.park, so keep an eye on their site for updates.
There’s a map of the plans here and it looks good! It’s at a high altitude too, so there should be no problems with snow.

Chamonix discount lift passes by 30% this season!

chaletlaforet September 30th, 2006

Chamonix is restructuring its lift pass system this season, and will be offering 30% discount to anyone buying their lift pass before 15th November 2006!

There will be two main types of pass:

Mont Blanc Unlimited
This lift pass gives access to all the lifts of the valley:
- the Aiguille Du Midi (for the Vallee Blanche, or just for the views)
- Le Tour (also known as Balme)
- Les Grands Montets including for the first time unlimited access to the top lift
- Brevent
- Flegere
- Les Houches (very handy for days when the higher domains have bad weather)
- The learner slopes
- Courmayeur (in Italy, a short drive through the Mont Blanc tunnel)
It also includes the Montenvers cog railway which runs up to the Mer De Glace, and the Tramway du Mont Blanc.

A six day Mont Blanc Unlimited pass is 220 euros - with 30% discount this comes to a very good deal at 154 euros.

Chamonix Le Pass
This lift pass includes the lifts at:
- Le Tour (also known as Balme)
- Les Grands Montets including for the first time unlimited access to the top lift
- Brevent
- Flegere
- The learner slopes
- 50% discount on the Montenvers cog railway which runs up to the Mer De Glace

You get six days for the price of five. A six day Chamonix Le Pass is 182 euros - with 30% discount this comes to 128 euros - a really good deal. You can also upgrade it to the full Mont Blanc Unlimited pass at any point, by paying the difference.

They will both be available from three days , and you now have a day off included (for instance a three day pass can be used on three days out of four - they don’t have to be consecutive.

Passes for up to five days are completely transferable so very useful if you are a mixed ablity group.

They also do “packs” of days which can be used any time up to 31st December 07 - again, the five day packs are transferable.

They say that you will be able to buy them on line “soon” - I’ll update this information as I find out more.

More info:
http://pistehors.com/news/ski/comments/0607-chamonix-lift-pass-grands-montets

The Compagnie du Mont Blanc is apparently about to relaunch its site, and this info is only available in French! but you can always google translate it
http://www.compagniedumontblanc.fr/fr/index.html

Chamonix bars are going no smoking…

chaletlaforet March 20th, 2006

Quite a few bars in town are going no smoking now - notably the MBC which has been long been our bar of choice for apres ski. It’s interesting to see that with some time passed - rather to my surprise - the atmosphere appears improved, if anything. The beer tastes much better for not having smoke in the air, and I’m sure it makes for a less severe hangover too.