Skiing the Chamonix valley is amazing! It's hard to describe the majesty of the mountains here. Chamonix and the surrounding areas are the birthplace of skiing and it's always been my dream to visit.  Two of my friends have been living in Argentiere for the winter, so Jamie and I went to ski for a couple of weeks.  

The views from Margie's house were astounding and I couldn't keep my jaw from dropping. The first day of skiing was beautiful and sunny, but freezing.  I think it was -5 F.  These next photos are from Les Grands Montet, one of the ski areas we visited. 

We went to check the out the scene in Cham for an afternoon.  The  city is beautiful!

From downtown, I couldn't stop staring at this cable car atop Le Brevent. 

Over the next few days, we skied several of the resorts around Chamonix and checked out the culture.  

Then it really snowed and the weather cleared!  Sunny Pow Day in France!

We really wanted to get over to Switzerland to Ski Verbier.  The bus ride is just over an hour from Chamonix and $35 round trip.  Somehow, we had amazing luck with the weather and hit Verbier on a bluebird pow day. It seemed all the high lifts and trams had been closed for a few days and were just opening as we arrived! 

Verbier has 4 Vallees. You can buy a day pass for 85 US dollars that gets you unlimited access to all the trams and lifts.  The terrain here is incredible.  The trams are everywhere and they give you access to some of the most amazing skiing i've ever experienced.

So far skiing in Europe has been off the hook!  It's hard to say which ski area was my favorite, but skiing the Augiulle Du Midi might take the cake. The Vallee Blanche is about 20km of glacier skiing with some of the best views in Chamonix.  I'll let the pictures do the talking.  

At the toe of the Glacier there was a path leading into these ice tunnels.  I haven't really taken the time to figure out why they are there.  The crystal clear ice is beautiful.

This was the trip of a life time for me!  I hope I get to go back soon!

Special thanks to Margie and Jamie B. for letting us stay at their house! Thank you Jamie C. for being such an amazing travel companion and personal photographer.  Thank You Flylow, Black Diamond, Ramp and Scarpa for hooking up the gear!

Headed north from Leavenworth, WA to Blue River, BC, an epic backcountry skiing adventure awaited me, until the Canadian Border Patrol decided to step in and make things difficult.  Happily driving on my own through Canada I was supposed to meet the Powderwhore Productions team in Kamloops at 7pm, then we were to drive together to ski at the Snowy Mountain Lodge for a week.   To make a long story short, the boys didn't make it across the  border (too many cameras) so I turned around and drove back to the US,  but not before picking up a fellow skier chic at the airport in Kamloops.  In hopes of still making some sort of adventure happen we drove the six hours back to the US border and headed to Lake Chelan to meet everyone else for plan B.  

Holden Village.  A old mining town turned Lutheran retreat, only accessed by boat. 

I had heard of the Holden Village Retreat before and I know of the epic mountains surrounding the west end of the lake, so I was pretty excited about our new plan.  There wasn't  any snow on the ground in Chelan and that left a little question in everyone's mind.  We loaded up the ferry with ski gear anyway and took off on a two and a half hour boat ride up lake in hopes of finding that secret pow stash high in the alpine.

There was a posse of people and a school bus waiting on the dock to greet us.

We arrived in Holden Village around 1:30 in the afternoon and got right to it.  We hiked up into the trees to get a feel for what we were going to ski for the next few days.  We found some great snow and equally great views of the huge peaks all around us. 

For the next few days we hiked and skied into the valleys surrounding the village and found some pretty awesome stuff.  

The village itself was really cool.  They have a dinner bell that they ring three times a day as soon as the food is ready! The rooms are dorm style and they have a wood fired sauna equipped with a cold pool.

The people at Holden Village are amazing!  Everyone here was so welcoming and kind to us.  Thank you Holden Village for an incredible time.  

Some Links for your enjoyment:
Powderwhore Producitons
Perpetual Weekend
Neil Provo