Skiing - Vallee Blanche

Hell yes, apparenlty theyve had 30cm allready this week, very cold though. Never skied the french side of Mt. Blanc but if you get bored head through the tunnel (about 10mins) onto the italian side and their are some great resorts.

Commayer - the skiing isnt great but an excellent town, with shopping and bars etc

Le Rosier/ La thuile - smaller resort in both italy and france, some great skiing

Pila- abit further down the vally, and quite small, but some excellent runs and a really friendly atmosphere.

Hope this helps

The Vallee Blanche is fantastic, but don't go with out a guide. You may not come back. It takes most of the day to do, not because it's difficult, but because you will want to look round at the scenery which is out of this world.

Grands Montets is a great area if your a good skier. One thing to look out for is if the snow doesn't come all the way down to the town which is only at 900m you may need to take a lift down at the end of the day.

Enjoy, it's a great ski area.

Originally posted by NickA Chapter and verse: http://pistehors.com/backcountry/wiki/Haute-Savoie/Skiing-Th e-Vallee-Blanche I'd heard it was nubbut a blue run, but quite fancy it having read the above, on scenery grounds at least .. off to Zermatt this year however .... provided I survive the Tiger trophy three weeks earler. Weird to go sailing, then skiing, then back to the boats.

I would urge anyone who thinks they might ski without a guide to read that.

This bit is worth reading twice.

As basic kit for a group I would suggest the following personal kit: a climbing harness, a 2 meter sling, a self blocking pulley (Petzl Mini traxion, a small emergency ascender (Petzl Tibloc), two screwgate karabiners and an ice screw. The group should also have a pair of 30 meter 8mm short climbing ropes and a couple of prussik loops. Each person should also attach a a 60cm free length of 9-10mm cord to their harness with a figure of 8 climbing knot with a screw gate karabiner on the other end. This makes external crevasse rescue easier and can be used to secure you using the ice screw to the wall of a crevasse. You will need to know how to use all this gear too... both for self and external crevasse rescue. Did I mention something about hiring a guide already?

I would also ensure that you all have tranceevers and have practiced finding them, and make sure you all have them on send.....

I would also want to ensure I had at least 4 fully qualified mates who can GMOODS

Get Me Out Of Deep Snow who know how to use the kit and have done it before.

When we Skiied it we had myself, 2 other "mountain climbers with winter climbing experience"; One RAF pilot who had jsut done artic training, most of the kit mentioned above and we still took a guide.

If you do it, take a guide....

Take a guide.

I've not skied it, but I have climbed the area in Winter involving traversing the "Mer De Glace" and it's not something you want to do without a guide, believe me.

The walk down from the 'Aguile du Midi' claims a few skiers every year. It's much nicer with crampons on going down almost vertical ice steps, but you haven't really got that option in your nice shiny 'Atomic's'.

You'll get some amazing views.... maybe not quite like this one, but hey you have to go up rather than down to get these... :-)