DingBatBell

Two things that we wanted to do on this trip to Chamonix; first one was do the Vallee Blanche and the second was to have a day in Courmayeur, Italy. It was looking unlikely that we would be able to get the Vallee Blanche in as most guides were telling us that it was unsafe for snowboarder as the snow bridges over the craveses were weak, never mind.

In order to get to Courmayeur from Chamonix you have to book a seat on a bus that runs from the train station in Chamonix through the Mont Blanc tunnel to Courmayeur, where you can then catch the ski bus to the cable car. The Weather in Chamonix was over cast but it wasn’t snowing, in Courmayeur it was very different. Once we got through the tunnel you could see that it had been snowing for a quite a while so we were looking forward to some powder and we weren’t disappointed when we got there, more about that later.

 

 The Road to Courmayeur: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This video is just the trip through the tunnel from the train station in Chamonix to the top of the cable car in Courmayeur.

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Tags: Chamonix, Chamonix and Courmayeur, Courmayeur, Snowboarding by Dingbat
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The second time up to the top of Grand Montet, but this time all 3 off us went up. We booked the cable car but as it turned out there wasn’t any queue so we just went straight on. We found out why it was quite later on. John was a bit unsure if he was going to do the run down, him being a skier and powder not being his thing… as it turned out he needn’t have worried, it was rock hard ice but at the time he didn’t know it. Keep looking over the side and shaking his head. He eventually lost his bottle and went back down in the cable car.

Before John went back down we walked up to the top of the viewing platform… the air must have been thin up there, I was knackered by the time I got to the top, Michael looked like he was going to pass out, which you can just see on the video. After a few photo’s we headed back down to the snow and set off to the right. The top was okay, not great, but some powder but about 100 yards down it was just ice so we headed back to the piste.

 

 Views from the top of Grand Montet: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

At the bottom we met up with John, who came walking through the crowd with a pint… nice.

After knocking back his pint we all headed down the home run, which was very good, we had the camera running but for some reason the file is knackered.

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Managed to get back to the apartment in one piece last night, even if Michael did try some adhoc skiing on a bit of grass on the way back, results where mixed.

Early start on our first day, checked the bus times, which didn’t mean a thing coz there never on time; either early or late. Anyway, bus came and decided on Grand Montet for first day.

Short wait in town for the next bus. Once at the top of the cable car we booked a place on the cable car going up to the top of Grand Montet, John didn’t fancy it so it was just me and Michael booked on the 1 pm.

Got a few runs in and had lunch about 12:00 then decided to have one run from the top of the bubble before our 1 o’clock booking. It normally only takes 10 minutes in the bubble and 15 minutes to get down  to the cable car but for some reason the bubble kept stopping and we didn’t get to the top until 12:50… 10 minutes to get down.

Made it down in record time, only just after 1 but the lass on the gate wouldn’t let us on the 1 o’clock so we had to wait for the next one. The run from the top of Grand Montet wasn’t as good as the last time we did it, not much powder coz it was all frozen, but not too bad. It would have to have a bit of snow on it before we did it again.

Selection of video from the day below (plus one shot of Michael in Courmayeur… for effect).

 

 Podcast Video: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Right, here we are then. Chamonix January/February 2009. Reports of lots of snow falling all over the Alps so looked like we were in for a good time. The trip started well, all meeting at Newcastle airport well ahead of schedule, couple of beers as is custom then a wander down to the gate to get on board… shock,  horror… gate was closed and they were about to take our bags of the flight. Managed to talk them out of it and finally got on and sat down with the usual looks from other passengers… “tut tut, there’s always one isn’t there …” and so on.

Flight was uneventfull and found our transfer no problems… just over an hour and a half later we were in the apartment and ready to go out but first to the super market for some shopping, beer, eggs, bread etc. Once that job done it was out into Chamonix for a few beers and a ponder on where to start tomorrow…

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