January 24-29, 2005, Chamonix, France

I arrived in the mountain village of Chamonix, France on Jan. 24th,  following a crazy day of delayed then cancelled flights, owing to a large snow storm in the Alps (which had closed the Geneva Airport on the 23rd).  The schedule set-backs were immediately forgotten once I hit the ski slopes, as the recent series of storms had dumped over 1 meter of fresh pow on the mountains above Chamonix.  <br>The first 2 days involved lots of epic powder skiing with plenty of face-shots, on generally mellow terrain within the ski areas.  The skiing remained good for the remainder of the week, though I mostly stuck to the soft-packed groomers after the 3rd day, as the winds had kicked-up strongly and turned that beautiful soft powder into a nasty breakable surface crust (no complaints though compared to the general absence of snow back home in the Cascades that week).  It was nice to find that winter still exists somewhere besides the Sierras and the SW U.S. this year (temps. were well below freezing in Chamonix all week).  The snow storms had passed by the end of the first day, which made for excellent visibility and amazing views of the surrounding rugged terrain (the Chamonix Aiguilles/Mont-Blanc Massif, etc.) throughout the week.  Skied 3 resorts in the Chamonix valley (Les Grand Montets, Le Brevent, & Le Tour), and spent a day on the opposite side of Mont-Blanc at the Courmayeur resort in Italy.  The French folks I met in Chamonix were actually quite hospitable, and I was invited to join them every evening to drink copious amounts of wine at the hostel [which I of course could not turn down  ;D ].   A nice 6-day escape from the dismal skiing conditions back at home that week. <br><br>Chamonix, France & Courmayeur, Italy photos:<br><br>www.cascadesfreak.com/gallery/alps2005