Found a marketing video that matches with the idea that the Arete is not that big a deal for someone not afraid of heights when there is enough snow and the wind isn't blowing. The video by an experienced guide also shows the stair climb that is the route to take the train back to Chamonix. He said people who ski red groomers and have some off-piste experience would do fine skiing the classic route.
I remember doing that some of the time in 2004. The guide in 2004 put me in the front of our line for that descent. There were 24 people on that trip. Vallee Blanche was not part of the original plan but some of us considered it a bucket list item so our travel escort arrange it last minute and spare only one if the two guides she had hired. Surprisingly there was not a big dispute over who wanted to do it most, and our group was mainly intermediate skiers. There were 3 young telemarkers who hired their own guide separately.
An excellent summary of the reasons we reserve only flight and car rental until a week or two before arrival.
Sez the guy who just scored a fantastic trip. I realize that you had to move a number of chess pieces into place but as they say on The Sopranos, "oh, poor you!"
got very lucky! A few days later and it would have been a different story. I’ve had interlodge/canyon issues ruin a few days in LCC before so Chris’s point is fair but I still think on the whole there is more variability to the alps vs west. That article just mentioned resorts shutting due to crazy amounts of snow. But there are plenty of other things, like a total white out, and that could ruin a day over there. I think “more needs to go right” to hit a score like I did.
I won't contest the general point; however, as Tony has noted many times, you're able to move far more easily through the Alps and choose an appropriate ski area for a given day or week than in the very spread-out U.S. west. A favorite exhibit was the second week of March 2016 when I went with low-elevation Mythen (1,070m - 1,593m) an hour south of Zurich -- not conventional wisdom for stormchasing at that point of the season -- to avoid a likely whiteout at higher "more reliable" nearby areas.
areas are still bad now, which is why I’m skipping them. You can be flexible in western North America too, but it has to be a very long trip like I am on now. In the Alps you can do it even for one week as James has demonstrated.
^^ which is the situation with my upcoming trip. If the Indy Pass tail weren't wagging the dog, there'd be a) $800 in lift tickets for the two of us, b) more driving, c) additional lodging changes (trying to minimize all of the above).