J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Ranchero_1979

Out of interest what skis are you on, you certainly seem to be enjoying them. Terrain looks great although not necessarily very steep? Have a friend going out next week and looks like a perfect place to develop your powder skiing and not just for those who can ski in >50cm of powder which is often the pictures we see?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n8uJ81HjW0

Nice little video showing just how diverse Chamonix is with good piste skiing for everyone. As you can see the pistes are sympathetic to the mountain with plenty of space between them (not trying to count KM for the sake of it). Of course you can clearly see the offpiste opportunities and the legendary scenery.

Enjoy.

Looks like they had done a great job with pistes. Obviously we all prefer to ski powder but hard piste skiing does have it's place and is definitely rewarding when skiing fast and trying to hold everything together. Of course even in those conditions there is a golden window when the sun softens it :-).

Nice slow plough at end coming upto lift. Great to see am not alone in pulling that trick out of box on occasions. Still most valuable thing you can learn on skis.

Used to have a pair of these and have to agree loved them. Great all round ski that will let you carve onpiste, hit some moguls and experiment at the side of the piste. For some reason I swapped for some Dynastar 4 x4 which were similar but had the major drawback of having a very stiff tip which often led to face plants in powder.

Done

All these people wishing they had a linked resort with 50% too many slopes plastered on the mountain.

http://www.chamonix.net/english/snow-reports/chamonixnet-snow-report-february-2nd-2015

Great example of patient powder skiing from 49 seconds onwards.

Can someone explain to me the benefit of a linked resort. There is some logic that the M25 is linked to the M62 but cannot see why you would ever need more than 40km of piste linked for a day (or do you stay in a different hotel each night/go camping?). Chamonix valley offers far more variety in altitude, aspect, terrain etc than any resort alone can offer. For those with a sole aim in life is just to clock up KM's we also have the record for highest vertical skied in a day. Plenty of resort with 200+km of skiing, only one with <9000ft of skiing (appreciate some people may prefer a lot of lift time).

As for beginners Les Houches and Balme both enable first week skiers to get a mountain experience and also have terrain which would allow for a mixed group of any level to enjoy.

Basically a valley for everyone and also offers arguably best year round mountain town in world, short transfer, long season. Of course if convenience is measured by long transfer times, plenty of path skiing and you like to pay a premium for some hellish run to the bottom (in the name of ski in ski out) then is probably not the place for you. Yes every morning I look at weather and make a judgement on where best skiing is, walk 50m, jump on a bus (every 10min) or a train but hardly an inconvenience (ski schools and guides will collect you in town).

The clearest endorsement of convenience is that have never felt need to rent a car in Winter. Yes in Summer is nice to be able to access lake and beach but in winter reward is more than enough to compensate for 10 min commute.

Snow is all in Chamonix.

http://www.skipass.com/news/115214-cham-lines-s2ep2-couloir-du-chape.html