After a lively week with ski friends, we packed up shop and got back on the road. Resuming our ethos of following the weather and snow we chose Argentiere – Chamonix, as reports showed a pending 100cm + of snow on its way to the legendary world renowned skiing Mecca. From there we would then choose Switzerland or Italy as the next country to ski.
En-route we decided to drop by Montchavin to ski a day with one of Mark’s old school friend from Germany. Since visiting the area (Paradiski) at the beginning of the trip, we were relieved to see that the number of open lifts and piste conditions had improved. We also found a decent ‘Caravaneige’ at the bottom of Montchavin village, which we would recommend as a base rather than the overpriced Aire in La Plagne. Click here for previous blog on La Plagne. Although slightly more expensive, Montchavin has all the facilities you’d expect and the WC is only 20 metres from the camping area – well worth the extra euros.
Conditions were much better
The walk into town is pretty tough in full ski gear and the location of the lift pass office isn’t obvious or near any access lifts. It is located on the main road in the village street to the right of the bars and restaurants, not near the piste/lifts as you would expect.
We met with Matt, Fran and Harvey who were all boarding and made our ascent. Even though the conditions had improved significantly, skiing was tricky and within 30 minutes Mark ventured off-piste resulting in a full face plant and an audible clicking from a twisted knee. Roars of laugher were all that could be heard from a very pleased Matt after seeing his old friend give it the ‘big-un’ and become royally undone in the process. After 10 minutes of searching Mark was reunited with his buried skis.
Needless to say the rest of the ski day was completed with caution, but not before ruining ourselves getting down a couple of mogul heavy black runs – Great fun but totally exhausting.
We all finished the day, without further injury, at the 3 Glaciers hotel back in Montchavin where we stumbled upon a pair of signed Candide Thovex Faction skis on display, unfortunately they were secured to the wall!
Sitting it out
On the way to Chamonix, Maggie received her first well earned wash! The next few days were spent relaxing in the town centre and enjoying the Freeride World Tour, sitting out the weather until conditions improved. The first night we arrived in Chamonix we held camp at the free ‘Aire de la Fontaine’ on the Les Houches side of the town, 10 minutes drive from Chamonix centre. This Aire simply has parking and toilets and is very secluded from the main carriage road into the centre.
Having laid low for a couple of days, we were starting to get cabin fever so we decided to venture up to Argentiere and make use of the free camper parking behind the main car park at the foot of the Grands Montets ski area. The conditions were overcast and the piste conditions were of average quality which made for difficult skiing, but we persevered. In addition to the standard lift pass for this area, there is a second access lift that needs to be purchased if you want to get all the way to the glacier. We’re not sure why this confusing separation is not made more clear when purchasing the standard lift pass before ascending, but we were definitely caught out after queuing for about 20 minutes! As it was a flat light day we decided not to spend the extra 14 Euro to make this lift journey, and it was the right decision as shortly after the lift closed due to high winds.
Blue skies and POWder…
We drove back to the Chamonix main road to park up so that we were closer to the Apres action for the weekend. But not before Mark headed out for a few hours ‘lone ski’ and apparently had the ‘BEST DAY EVER’ bouncing off-piste. He got some good footage which resulted in a short film of his morning, and he was over the moon when he returned to Maggie.
Jess had a productive morning tidying the van and washing up (pink jobs), managing to drop a sharp knife on her foot and break a bowl. The sun was out in full force today so we took a walk down to to the town and stopped for wine at the outdoor bar opposite ‘Irish Coffee’. Wanting to spam the family while we are away with another avenue of media and contact, we setup a ‘WhatsApp’ group and proceeded to chat and bombard them with photos using the Wifi we jumped on.
Realising the adult competition of the Freeride Tour was actually today, and not as we had previously thought of it being the following day, we watched the award ceremony quite disappointed that we’d missed the actual event on the mountain. After a couple more drinks, half of which Jess managed to throw down an American mans jacket, we found somewhere for dinner where Jess her the first Tartiflette of the season! The restaurant seemed to sit all English people upstairs and out of the way in the same area, but we all ended up laughing amongst ourselves about the portion size of the Raclettes and whether they would be able to ask for a doggy bag.
On leaving the restaurant we found Jess a new backpack which we had to abandon as it was too large to fit in Maggie…
Even though there are campsites in the Chamonix area, we preferred to make use of the free carparks and road lay-bys without any issues or being moved on by the police. There is a large community of ‘long stayers’ and an abundance of motorhomes visible throughout the area – Maybe this is why the local police don’t hassle people to move on, as it would be a full time job doing so.
Moving on
Having missed the adult freeride competition we decided to move on to Zermatt in Switzerland, rather than heading to Italy next. The nearest campsite to our chosen destination was in Randa, which originally seemed a long way off from being able to ski Zermatt.
When we arrived we soon realised that access to Zermatt was only possible by taxi, train or bus, and it would be impossible to take Maggie into the village area. The transport systems in Switzerland are generally reliable and the Swiss train network is especially good and in abundance. Before settling in for the evening we drove to a local shop to top up on supplies before heading back to the campsite to plan our route up to ski Zermatt in the morning.
Now, there are certain foods that should be avoided in close proximity living quarters, the foodstuff at the top of this list is fish. The pungent nature of this food, coupled with the inability to leave windows and doors open in subzero temperatures for prolonged periods of time, means that the odour will linger for many hours and eventually make you feel sick. Top tip – don’t eat fish unless its warm outside!
#skiclubphotos #inthesnow #powder #motorhomeski #skilife #frozenintheinside
frozen on the inside 