Still Skiing

Finally, the ski season is coming to a close in the Chamonix valley. But whilst most of the areas have now closed for the season, there's still plenty of excellent skiing to be had in Argentiere at the Grand Montets, where the lifts stay open till 11th May.

The weather pattern has continued to be fairly unsettled but the plus side of this has been the continued snow falls. A quick look today, however, reveals that its a great skiing day with some big blue skies overhead. Fantastic!

And our guests have been taking advantage of the prolonged season, with the apartment booked right through until this last weekend. And here's a happy looking bunch...


Caroline and her family have recently returned from 2 weeks in Argentiere and it sounds like they had a great time - and really appreciated the apartment. Here's a little of what they said...

"It was so lovely to walk into a spotless & comfortable "home" with all the beds made up, & a great kettle & teapot! The kitchen is extremely well stocked, we were very impressed with the potato masher & the toaster (SO unFrench). It is a very spacious apartment for Argentiere, & you seem to have thought of everything we could have needed."

Glad to hear that we're getting it right. Now, on with the summer!

Start 'em young

Have you got a favourite ski run? Well, if pushed, I think I'd have to have Les Chamois up on the Grand Montets somewhere near the top of my list. A long, large meandering black run down a natural bowl that's provided some challenging and excellent terrain for many years. I was probably in my mid/late 20's before I discovered the run (only having learnt to ski a couple of years before that). So, sickening then when your 6 year old daughter in only her second season manages to ski the run with grace and ease!


And compared to 3 year old Sam, that's nothing! At the beginning of the trip he was merrily being dragged around between my legs. 2 days later and he's not just skiing the slopes, he's looking for jumps. Needless to add, progression during the holiday was significant, with the crowning glory being his descent of the Herse, the red run under the 6 man chair at Grand Montets. He turned an eye or 2 on his way down!

Don't you just wish you'd learnt to ski when you were 3 years old!

Here's another one of Jodie and Sam heading off with the entire Chamonix valley ahead of them and Mont Blanc in the middle distance... Cool, huh?

On the buses

Do we hire a car or do we rely on public transport? Being a 2 car family living in an area where public transport is next to non-existent, the natural choice is always to opt for the convenience of hiring a car. However, one of the key deciding factors in the long decision making process which resulted in deciding to stay in Argentière was based on the ease of access to the slopes. And so surely the right thing to do was save some money and opt for no car. Fine, when it comes to the short walk over the road to the Grand Montets, but what about when it comes to skiing down the valley at Le Brevent, especially with 2 young children plus skis in tow?


We actually set off with a day at La Flegere in mind. The bus stop is a short walk up the village street from L'Androsace but Sam (3) and Jodie (6) manage the walk easily in their ski boots, though it helps that dad attaches both sets of skis to his rucksack. We used the bus regularly over a fortnight and never waited more than about 10 minutes for one to arrive. The trip down the valley to the Flegere stop only takes a few minutes but, due to high winds or other reasons unknown, the telepherique was closed, so we stayed on the bus into town and the Chamonix Sud 'bus station'. Once there, we had to wait about 20 minutes for the bus to take us up to Le Brevent which wasn't ideal - but such are the joys of public transport I guess!


Once at Le Brevent, the longer than expected journey was soon forgotten. Excellent snow conditions, stunning views, big sunshine and deserted pistes all help! The lower runs were easy and yet challenging and long enough to keep Sam occupied for the day and the Haagen Daz ice cream in the restaurant proved to be the staple diet of the young skier. Another cracking family ski day.


As for the journey home again... We waited less than 5 minutes for the bus back into town and then were straight onto the bus up to Argentière. Back in the apartment in no time. Cars? Who needs 'em!

Back in Argentiere

Back again in residence in Argentière for a couple of weeks. Having been out in mid April last year and enjoyed a week of blue skies and 20 degrees plus and some very spring snow conditions we weren’t really expecting the depths of winter when we arrived. But that’s exactly what we got! A big storm over the Easter weekend brought stacks of new snow to low levels (about 500m). Don’t know the final count but last we looked the fall in Argentière at around 1100m was 60+cm.


We arrived late Sunday to find that it was still snowing – and it continued into Monday. And with a chill wind behind it, the weather felt decidedly more wintry than it had done on our previous trips out in December and February, and we’d had some big snowfalls on both occasions.

The difference being, however, that in late March the sun rises much earlier in the depths of the valley and once the storms clear, the snow in the valley at least, soon gets quite wet. That said, it’ll be a while before the 60+cm thaws and we see the swimming pool again.


The days on the mountains have been as enjoyable as ever. Jodie, who turned 6 just last week has progressed beyond the red runs and is now attempting to shred the powder behind mum. And Sam, at just 3 years old, is into his 2nd season on skis and yesterday was let loose on the blue runs at Le Tour on his own. He’s getting quite good at ‘pizza and chips’ and I suspect it won’t be long before he’s chasing his sister into the off piste. And thre’s always time for a little hedonism for dad. First tracks this morning under blue skies and untracked powder in the combe and under the herse at the Grand Montets. A little slice of heaven…

MTB Tour of Mont Blanc

Still very much in winter mode and we've still got another 2 weeks of skiing ahead of us, but there's always time to start planning for when the snow melts.

And no time like the present for planning a wee 'boys trip' to tackle the classic mountain bike Tour of Mount Blanc. The route will take about 5 days and basically goes all the way round Mount Blanc taking in some fantastic off-road mountain biking on the way. Have a peak at the KE Adventure web site if you fancy learning more about the route.

There's a group of about 10 bikers from the Highlands, home of the 2007 MTB World Championships, and we've chosen the middle week of September to head out. We're obviously still in the planning stages at the moment and givee that its an exclusively male club, we haven't got past who's carrying the beer yet!

What a week!

So, just nicely back to a surprising sunny Glencoe after a fantastic first family week in the apartment in Argentière. And, wow! What a week we had.


Travelling with Easyjet out of Glasgow went without incident, and they even managed to get us to Geneva early. However, the airport decided to put us back to schedule with a delay whilst they got all the skis through to baggage reclaim. A bit of a pain, but appeared that several incoming flights were affected and at least we got the skis - unlike on the way home.

We booked our transfers using the special discounted rates for StayInChamonix.com customers with Ski-Lifts. They passed the 'Ronseal' test with flying colours and did exactly what it said on the tin in both directions. Faultless service with plenty of communication thrown in.


And so to the action... Plenty of recent snow ensured that Argentière village was well covered. And yet another snow fall on our first day out at Le Tour just added to it. With some challenging visibility 5 year old Jodie faired particularly well, but in reality the skiing was secondary to the excitement of being in the midst of a real snowfall. The skies cleared on the following day making for a fantastic blue sky powder day, which we spent at La Flégère, just a short bus journey down the valley from Argentière. Despite the congested access on the telepherique, the easy blue and green runs, plus the great snow conditions, the huge mountain back drop and the big sun in the sky make it a great place for Jodie and Sam (just 3!) to ski.


During the rest of the week we skied again at Le Tour, at the head of the valley, and had a couple of days at Les Grand Montets. We found a couple of great places at Le Tour to get Sam practicing some 'pizza and chips' with his skis. Next time out he'll be chasing Jodie down the red runs, and within a couple of years I fear will be shouting catch up at me. The Grand Montets also really provided a few good easier runs for cruising with the kids and came with the added bonus of being so close to the apartment. I actually sneaked out on the odd morning at 8.30am to go and grab a few (very quiet) runs down the mountain on the snowboard before heading back to the apartment to swap for skis and collect the kids for an afternoon at a slightly slower pace.


Using the valley bus was quite painless, despite travelling with 2 young children and 4 sets of skis. In fact, it comes with high novelty for the kids as we don't really have great public transport links in the Highlands of Scotland. We were also obliged to pop down to Chamonix on the train, not so much for the need to go to Chamonix, as for the train ride there and back again! Any excuse for a latte and an ice cream!


And then there was the sledging, the snowman building, the snowball fights, the icicle smashing and everything else that little (and big) kids love to on their hols!


A great week. Can't wait till we're back in Argentière again... soon.

Can't wait!

Typical isn't it. You invest in a ski apartment in the Alps so that you indulge yourself in your favourite pasttime and we go and have a ski season here in Scotland again!

Not a bad complaint I guess. Having had a couple of weekends at Nevis Range in January, family Daynes are now swapping the fickle snows of the Highlands for the slightly less fickle snows of Argentiere.

Not sure who's the most excited about heading out for the week. Three year old Sam or dad - a bit more than 3 yrs old. We will of course be updating the blog with our exploits so call back again soon!

Gone skiing...