2007 - Salt Lake City / Chamonix
| Salt Lake City Stayed at: Inn at Snowbird Conditions: Day 1 - Epic day with 15" of new snow. | Chamonix Stayed at: Hotel Richemonde Conditions: Day 1 - Spring - 50 and sunny at Brevent/Flegere. |
With Jon speaking at a conference in France (thereby getting free airfare/hotel), and Mark living in NJ, we knew the year would be different. Unfortunately, Jonathan and Mark couldn't join Jon so he took Donna while Mark and Jon capitalized on a last minute trip to take advantage of a huge dump at Snowbird. Snowbird proved great (as usual), and the Alps were truly breathtaking. A brief summary of skiing in Europe from Jon, and photos. If Fink ever sends along pictures, I'll post those too..
It is totally different here - very open skiing as it is 100% above the trees. They have something like 30,000 acres (Vail has 5300) and 9,000 feet of vertical. Also, because you never ski down to the valley, it doesn't flatten out at all - no traversing. When you get off most lifts, you are at the top of a huge bowl and you just go.
What is cool here is that there are 6 distinct ski areas (including one in Italy) all either right in town, or a short busride away. Two are lower altitude, one you need a guide as it is on a glacier and we did 2 of the others (not Italy). Very different conditions at each - Brevent/Flegere on the north side of Chamonix (south facing) is totally spring skiing - 50 degrees and corn snow from 9am. It is huge - takes a day to just get to around to all the different bowls. On the south side, Les Grand Montets is more winter-like and you can ski all the way to the valley, which takes a good half hour from the top. Not quite as big but still takes most of the day to ski it all. In town, it is like 60 degrees and people all hang out outside drinking/eating/etc. The town is mostly closed to cars and you are completely surrounded by glacier covered mountains - it is very surreal walking on green grass without a coat and looking at these totally snow covered mountains 2 miles
above your head. I took lots of photos. Overall though I have to say the snow is not as good at out west - when it snows here, I get the feeling a lot gets closed due to avalanche danger. You can see past slides all over the place when you are skiing. And there is so much terrain, that moguls don't really form as people are so spread out (no liftlines at all). So my summary is mostly steep intermediate skiing with amazing views.
That's my synopsis. It is definitely worth a trip. Although airfare would be expensive, hotels ($90 for two with breakfast) and lift tickets ($45) are cheap. Food is more expensive but (mostly) worth it - you have to watch out for wierd French meats. Great fondue, good Italian pizza and cheap wine. And I got Souppe de Poisson, which reminded me of my days in Nice.
posted by jonfrankel at 8:39 AM
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