Ski in Argentière

Skiing in Argentière

Argentière - Ski Resort in Ski Pass Mont Blanc, French Alps - 30km of Piste (1250m to 3280m)

The glaciated section of the Chamonix valley, historically linked to the famous resort. A small but attractive strung out village which suffers rather from traffic, but the skiing above is legendary and snow sure.

Argentière

Sponsored Links

Argentière Ski Facts

Argentière Ski Facts

		Expert Skiers
		Intermediate Skiers
		Beginners
		Snowboarding
		Snow
		Apres-Ski
	4	Black Pistes (4km)
	4	Red Pistes (13km)
	4	Blue Pistes (13km)
	3	Green Pistes
30km		Downhill Pistes
14km		Cross Country Pistes
10		Ski Lifts
2030m		Max Vertical
3280m		Highest Lift
1250m		Lowest Piste
1250m		Resort Altitude

Argentière

The French ski resort of Argentière is part of the Ski Pass Mont Blanc area with access to 490 individual pistes. In addition to the skiing in Argentière itself (30km of pisted ski runs), the appropriate ski Lift Pass will allow you to ski or snowboard in the other Ski Pass Mont Blanc ski resorts of Chamonix, Combloux, Cordon, Le Tour, Les Contamines, Les Houches, Megève, Passy Plaine Joux and St Gervais Mont-Blanc.

With pistes above 2500 metres, skiing and snowboarding is assured throughout the season.

Ski Lift Capacity :- The 10 Ski Lifts of Argentière are able to uplift 51,000 skiers / snowboarders per hour.

There are three Airports within two hours drive, so ski weekends, snowboard breaks and short ski holidays to Argentière are perfectly feasible. Geneva Airport and Sion Airport are just one hours drive away, in good driving conditions, so you can be on the piste quickly.

Skiing in Argentière

The Chamonix Mont Blanc Valley is an area synonymous with the best and most challenging in mountain sports world-wide and attracts the best practitioners of skiing, snowboarding, climbing and other disciplines each season. It attracts an even greater number of 'wannabes'. However, the resort is keen to point out that you don't have to 'live for skiing' to enjoy what Argentière has to offer: there are pisted trails for all standards.

The terrain in The Grand Montets sector above the resort includes long, wide easy pistes for children and beginners; narrow and sloping combes for more advanced skiers and vast, wide long slopes for freestyle skiers or freeriders. Moguls form naturally on the la Herse or les Coqs pistes. There are endless off-piste ski routes to tackle with a guide.

Starting from Les Grands Montets (3297 m) it's possible to ski right down to Argentière (1200 m), via the piste du Point de Vue or des Pylônes, then via the hotel Alternative and the Pierre à Ric, all part of Les Grands Montets with a vast number of alternatives are possible. You need to be in good physical condition to do the eight kilometre (five mile) descent over a 2100m vertical drop - one of the world's biggest lift served descents.

The off piste descent on the Argentière glacier remains a great classic for advanced skiers, sweeping down between the seracs, turning in the Cordier couloir and discovering the Argentière massif, taking a guide is essential.

Advanced skiers can go to Montenvers from the Aiguille des Grands Montets to get to Chamonix. This route combines great curves on the vast slopes of the Pas de Chèvre, skiing on the Nant Blanc glacier, crossing the Mer de Glace and a descent towards Chamonix through the forest. Again, taking a guide is essential.

Until 1996 the Chamonix Valley was one of the few remaining major ski areas to offer separate passes for different sectors of its skiing, but no whole-resort pass, unless you purchased the huge Skipass Mont-Blanc covering well over 230 lifts in a dozen or so neighbouring ski areas. This changed with the introduction of a range of 'Chamski' passes carefully tailored after extensive research to meet the needs of the diverse winter sports market. The basic six day pass includes a day over in Courmayeur, normally subject to a supplement, and two trips on the high Grands Montets lifts, again usually charged at an additional fee.

The Grand Montets is a major part of the area's reputation and Argentière has the most direct access to it via the famous cable car. The skiable descent possible is from 3275 metres to 1230 metres and the world's record vertical in one day was set here by Canadian Mark Jones, clocking up 51 descents - a vertical of 64,000 metres (210,000 feet).

Of the other famous sectors, L'Aiguille du Midi is perhaps the most legendary, with the famous 22km off-piste descent through La Vallée Blanche (take a guide!). Finally mention must be made of historic Le Brévent, where Chamonix's and one of the Alps' first real ski lifts was installed. The descent there is around 1500m.

Snowboarding in Argentière

The Chamonix Valley has a reputation as the Freeriding Capital of Europe, whether on skis or board, and Argentiere certainly has plenty to entertain boarders of all abilities. There's a half pipe on Grand Montets and plenty of natural snowparks to entertain snowboarders.

There are two terrain parks and another half pipe in the Chamonix area.

Argentière Aprés Ski

There are a dozen or so bars in the village, popular choices include the Savoie Bar and Stones Bar. The Office is ever more popular, especially at Happy Hour. For something a little more sophisticated try the piano bar at the White Roc.

If you want non-stop nightlife head down the road to Chamonix where there's a big choice and many establishments open to 4am. There's even a casino there if you want to boost your holiday spending money with a spectacular win on the gaming tables.

Argentière Snow Reports by e-mail

For a Free 7-Day Snow Forecast for Argentière, including a Snow Report with current skiing conditions, just sign-up to our Ski Chat Forum and set Argentière as a favourite ski resort in your Profile.

Argentière in brief

Argentière Ski Resort is:
Excellent for Expert Skiers.
Very good for Intermediate Skiers.
Ok for Beginners.
Excellent for Snowboarding.
Opened : December 8, 2012
Closed : May 12, 2013
Opening Subject To Snow Conditions.

Argentière Snow Forecast

Argentière Piste Map

Map of Argentière