Evasion Mont Blanc, France (Ski Area: Les Contamines): February 3, 2026

[ChrisC]

Evasion Mont Blanc is a vast ski domain accessible with a single ski pass, giving one access to:

• Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc,
• Megève,
• Saint-Nicolas de Véroce,
• Combloux,
• La Giettaz,
• Les Contamines Montjoie and
• Hauteluce

My Goal was to ski as much of it as possible in a day. I started in Les Contamines & Hautelce in the AM/Morning, and skied St. Gervais & Megeve in the PM/Afternoon. Previously, I have accumulated a storm/powder day at Megeve, a bluebird powder day at Les Contamines, and another sunny transfer day at Megeve, traveling from Val d'Isere/3 Vallees to Chamonix.

Evasion Mont Blanc - Les Contamines highlighted in RED

Les Contamines (right) and Hauteluce (left)

OpenSkiMap Topo Map
One always needs the topo map in the Alps to see WTH is really going on: exposure/orientation, lift and piste lengths, gradients, etc.

OpenSkiMap.org

Explore downhill, nordic & backcountry skiing worldwide using this interactive map based on open data.

openskimap.org

The day started overcast with flat light but gradually cleared. I stayed overnight in Les Houches, France, just outside Chamonix (a very reasonable lodging base). Mont Blanc massif (Auguille du Midi far left point) in the early morning hours, with the village of Les Houches below:

Taking the Mont Joie Gondola up from Les Contamines village

Looking over to the expert faces/bowls of Mont Joly. Exposure is East / Southeast.
Megeve is on the backside of the mountain.

Looking over to the Auguille du Roselette 2384M. Exposure: North

Making my way to the Mont Joly summit 2525M via Tierces Lift.

Sommet de l’aiguille du Croche 2487 m. Facing Mont Blanc. The light is a bit flat, but the snow is good at nearly 8000 ft!

Eventually skied off the backside to Hauteluce sector. Orientation: South and West. Snow was still good/ok due to the recent top-off, but better higher up on the westward pistes and off-piste areas.

Back on the Les Contamines north-facing aspects - the Bûche Croisée (6p Chairlift)

Visibility began to improve dramatically, so it was time to leave the piste and head over to the backside of Hauteluce. Again, Les Contamines has an almost 360-degree range of exposures, so it is easy to follow the sun progressively throughout the day.

Kept riding two lifts in order to ski the giant Croix piste and zone. Beautiful remote skiing!

Mid-mountain: Ruelle (16p Gondola) and Col du Joly (Quad).

Choton (Platter). Still some sections of unskied snow if you look....

Auguille Croche - backside

Typical Euro/IG Location Sign.
Not Bad: Les Contamines with Mont Blanc in the background.

Finally can see everything well by mid-morning.

Mont Blanc 4,807 m (15,771 ft) makes an appearance!

Trying to reski a few flat light areas from the morning...Now with a proper backdrop!

Would be a great lunch stop, Signal 1900m, but it was time to drive over to St. Gervais/Megeve...

I need to be a relaxed tourist one day.....

La Kouzna - Les Contamines-Montjoie

www.lescontamines.com

TBC....

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Excellent report but:

Evasion Mont Blanc is a vast ski domain accessible with a single ski pass (...) My goal was to ski as much of it as possible in a day.

Would be a great lunch stop, Signal 1900m, but it was time to drive over to St. Gervais/Megeve...

Exactly how is this different than our friend from Zurich? If it looks like a duck (à l'orange)...

 

[ChrisC]

Exactly how is this different than our friend from Zurich? If it looks like a duck (à l'orange)...

It's different because I am doing it!

I would never stop at Mad River Glen in the middle of an exceptional day for only an hour to ride the Single Chair and Sunnyside double, and then take off?! Do you know how rare the conditions were when he visited a lot of ski areas in the Northeast?



And my plans generally do awry. I accomplish a lot, no doubt; it's borderline insane when I have just a single day to ski somewhere new. But typically, I have not really made reservations.

Typically, I will determine the next ski area the day before, and pick someplace to stay either the night before or the morning.

If I were really like I, a Swiss Friend, I would have continued the death march into Austria and used my Epic Pass at every new (for me) mountain, in really awful machine-made WROD conditions. No way! Anything east of Zurich was experiencing very poor conditions into mid-winter.

 

[Tony Crocker]

ChrisC did not post his vertical in these last 3 TRs. But he has the same objective I do in visiting new place, to see and ski as complete an overview of the area as possible. The difference is that he covers ground a lot faster. Our survey of Grand Massif was 60K vertical over two days; his was 48K vertical in one day. I knew from his TR that I would need at least two days at Grand Massif.

I would never stop at Mad River Glen in the middle of an exceptional day for only an hour to ride the Single Chair and Sunnyside double, and then take off?! Do you know how rare the conditions were when he visited a lot of ski areas in the Northeast?

That explains @Worldskitraveller's totally misleading comments about Stowe after presumably riding the Forerunner quad only once. What really takes the cake is being close to ends-of-the-earth Mt. Bohemia and passing up a 2 foot powder day there to stay on his molehill tour schedule.