Chamonix - Mont Blanc Reviews

• Overall Rating 4
• Family Friendly 2
• Downhill Terrain 4
• Terrain Park 4
• Nightlife 5

Pros: Superb skiing, great atmosphere

Cons: Busy, fragmented, gloomy

Recommended Skill Level: Intermediate, Advanced
Recommended For: Single/Newlyweds, Empty Nesters
Date Visited: Jan, 2009

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Full review

I last skied Chamonix more than ten years ago, it was bigger and busier than i remembered and i'd forgotten how the massive mountains overshaddow the town, I heard one person who moved here for a season cracked up after two weeks and had to leave they found the whole plkace over shadowing.

Chamonix has some of the world's best skiing for experienced skiers but there's not much for beginners and the ski areas are not very user friendly to access, the ski bus is easiest for most.

I did the Vallee Blanche with a guide. It was quite scary doing the arette at the start where you slip in your ski boots down a steep slope, about 200m long, we were roped together and clung on to a rope along the side and colncentrated so hard on non-slipping we forgot there was a 2000m + drop. I guess it was nothing for experienced climbers but it scared the willys oiut of me. The snow wasn't great so the Vallee Blanche was quite hard going and you end up with a big climb up a load of stairs so I was really, really knackered aty the end. Again, though they say, and its true, that intermediates can do it, I wouldn't really recommend it unless you're a hardcore skier wanting a long off-piste run with a scary traverse at the start and a long staircase climb at the end.