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Skiing Chamonix, France

3/22/2013

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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.  
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The view from the top of Les Grands Montet
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. 
Click on the smaller photos to view them bigger.
We went to check the out the scene in Cham for an afternoon.  The  city is beautiful!
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Mont Blanc in the distance.
From downtown, I couldn't stop staring at this cable car atop Le Brevent. 
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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!
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Another Gallery for your enjoyment.

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! 
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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.
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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.  
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The Vallee Blanche is the glacier on the left in the distance. You ski from the top of the Augiulle Du Midi and down to the toe of the glacier.
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.
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This was the trip of a life time for me!  I hope I get to go back soon!

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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!
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