A day off skiing

Well, they did ask for a day off skiing. Not quite sure what they had in mind. As it turns out, it could have been prolonged sessions on the sofa watching rubbish cartoons and munching crisps. But how was I to know that?! The sun was shining, the snow was deep... walking over to towards the Swiss border seemed like an obvious choice to me!

To be fair, we did make it easier on them. Instead of heading up the Petit Balcon and through the woods, we did decide to jump on the train as far as Montroc, cutting out most of the uphill stuff.

Tré-le-Champ is perhaps my favourite spot in the whole Chamonix valley. There's something about the spread out chalets, the open meadow, the views back to the valley, and the waft of wood smoke that makes this a special spot. I see that they have some new residents, though!

 From there it's a short haul over the Col des Montets, at 1461m above sea level.

Lunch on the top in the glorious sunshine and then pretty much downhill all the way to Vallorcine via Le Buet.

We arrived in Vallorcine just as the January sun was about to disappear behind the Aiguille Rouges.  Perfect timing!

All in all a superb snow shoe trip. Not too long, but long enough to enjoy being out on snow shoes. Lots of great scenery and lots of big sunshine too. At Vallorcine there's the cafe at the station where they serve big glasses of beer and very reasonably priced but huge nutella crepes. A fine place to wait for the train back to Argentiere, or for this winter at least, the bus that replaces it on the same timetable.