Chamonix - Flegere and Brevent 1/03/05

ChrisC

Well-known member
Another 15cm/6in fell the day/night before and it was yet another beautiful day --- pure sunshine with temps around -10C/15F. This is ideal weather for the south-facing slopes of Brevent and Flegere.

All the holiday skiers had cleared out. There was no one on the mountain until 1030 or so. Most of my group did other things today. I was getitng lonely. Frankly, having a few skiers carving tracks in these big bowls help one visualize what is possible.

Flegere consists of 3 main ski areas -- 2 bowls on either side of a broad face. People barely were skiing the face. Fresh tracks were had in the bowls all day long. Also, the link to Brevent is very easy. I was able to ski all the way over to the Cornu and Brevent cable car lifts and back in about 2 hours.

I found Flegere to be even more uncrowded then Brevent due to capacity. Flegere has only ONE lift werving three very large areas which limits capacity. This lift is very weird -- a detchable triple with green plastic molding to encase its skiers. The nick name is the Darth Vader chair.

WARNING: The access cable car to Flegere is a major bottleneck! During busier weeks expect to wait 45 min - 1 hour at 1000 am to 100pm. Either get there by 900am OR start at Brevent with its 6 passenger access gondola.
 

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ChrisC":f3hg1ppc said:
This lift is very weird -- a detchable triple with green plastic molding to encase its skiers. The nick name is the Darth Vader chair.

I looks more like a welder helmet. :lol:

Love that top Tram at Brévent, not for the people with vertigo.

The scenary probably rate up there as one of the ski areas with the most spectacular scenary in the World, in my books anyways.
 
These are the obvious exception to my general opinion that the Alps should be skied late in the season. My afternoon here had lots of problems: big crowds, gusty winds that resulted in a lot of hardpack/icy snow. Vail's back bowls get more snow and have much less wind. I would agree that terrain quality was at least comparable though.

The views are of course amazing. But I had filled my digital card at Grands Montets and Vallee Blanche.

I've never seen snow stats for Chamonix, but it must be high (at adequate elevation) relative to other areas in the Alps. Since the town is low (about 3,000 ft.) the cut runs down to the valley floor are unreliable or snowmaking dependent. The ones at Brevant/Flegere were closed and thus resulted in big tram lines to get off the mountain. I think the 223 inches for Verbier 7,200 ft. is near average for the Alps at typical ski elevations.
 
Well, I'm glad violated one of Tony's rules (joke).

Yes, I was very lucky with temps and snow in Chamonix -- on the south facing slopes.

I will post my travel recommendations about Cham later.
 
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