Chamonix

Back home from a wonderful stay in the French alps this time. Had a great weekend even if the weather was not the best this time. However, we knew that according to the forecast we could not expect great weather so we were had low expectations. Yet, the weekend turned out great and we had a wonderful time together and did enjoy some great and amazing powder skiing.

Chamonix, is a quite lite town (perhaps not so little, it has approximately 10,000 inhabitants). It has a lot of charm. Small winding streets with plenty of small shops, restaurants, cafes and bakery's. Nested among the peaks of the snow caped mountain tops.

This time we were lucky enough to be able to rent an apartment from a friend of Swedish C that we were making this ski weekend with. A tiny little place but it worked out perfect for the four of us (me, Carl, Christin and Helene).

It started snowing heavily already Saturday afternoon. The snow in the air in combination with fogginess did not leave us with much visibility at all. We skied Saturday before noon but then we gave up and decided to check out the village of Chamonix instead. I came home with both new ski pants as well as a new pair of ski goggles and C got himself a new helmet. 

It snowed all night long which was great as the slopes were in bad need for some new snow. The warm and mild conditions of the weather from last week had caused much of the snow to melt away and packed the remaining snow pretty hard making the slopes icy and hard. 

We woke up to winter wonderland. The landscape looked like a pretty Christmas card and there were several inches of fresh powder snow in the slopes! A dream come true for every skier.

A first time experience for me to ski in powder. Kind of tricky first but also something I enjoyed. Visibility conditions kept changing and we had some good moments and some not so good moments. But if felt great that I by now have enough experience to be able to handle and manage conditions like these ones.

 

Had a great weekend with our Swedish friends from Basel. Helene and Christine and then C at the end of the chair in this lift.

Had lunch at this wonderful little cozy place in a tiny village halfway down the slope. Everything was cooked with plenty of love and was absolutely fabulous. Not at all the regular boring ski lunch place where you pay a lot for something that is not worth even half the amount you are paying. Here the food was wonderful and it was not expensive at all. So glad we found this little place.

It was fun to try out a ski weekend in the French alps where I had never been before. Chamonix is a well known place for skiers from all around the world. We hear plenty of Swedish as we walked around town and in the slopes. The French ski slopes are different compared to the Swiss. The Swiss lifts are more comfortable and modern. I liked it here and hope to come back when the weather conditions are better next time. 

Tried some after ski as well at Charmbre Neuf (no idea how to spell this). It was pretty wild in there. The place was packed with people dancing, laughing, drinking beer and singing. People were dancing on tables. A fun place for people watching but a little bit too crazy and too loud for me. We had dinner reservations so we did not stay for long. 

Enjoyed a great skiing day Sunday. Glad we did not stay too long at the after ski place because that enabled us to get up early next morning and hit the slopes early being the first ones going down those fresh and powdery slopes. The drive from Chamonix to Basel is approximately 3.5 hours so it is doable for a weekend like this. 

This was our last ski weekend for the season. The skiing season does go on for about another month officially here in Switzerland but we feel ready to close the season and look forward to a new one next winter instead. After all it is spring now and soon we will be able to enjoy the alps by going hiking instead.