Chamonix Valley Snowshoe Week Excursion, Chamonix

This package includes:

• Transport in the Chamonix valley
• Snowshoes, poles and avalanche safety equipment

Itinerary as follows:

• Day 1 - Arrive in Argentière and team briefing
• Day 2 - Around Chamonix, learn how to use your avalanche equipment and walk to the Chalets de Chailloux
• Day 3 - Ascent of Mont de l'Arpille, Switzerland with transfer to Ravoire and hike via the Mont de l'Arpille
• Day 4 - Vallorcine and the Alpage de Loriaz
• Day 5 - The Tête Noire with transfer to Sallanches
• Day 6 - The Grand St Bernard Monastery and night in the refuge
• Day 7 - Return to Argentière via the Col Ouest de Barasson
• Day 8 - Departure Day

Emma Jack
Emma is a qualified IML (International Mountain Leader) and has been leading treks and expeditions for the last 17 years. The Tour du Mont Blanc trek is one of her specialities and this year she is set to complete her 50th TMB circuit. Emma has led trips all over the world, and cites Nepal as her overall favourite. A passionate skier, in 2009 she made the first ski descent of Manaslu, the 8th highest mountain in the world (8156m). Fluent in French, Russian and Spanish, she also works as an interpreter and loves to chat.

Emily Andrew
Also a qualified IML, Emily has many years' leading experience. Based in Chamonix, she's no stranger to the Tour du Mont Blanc; but also enjoys travelling further afield and has recently led trips to Alaska, Norway, Kilimanjaro and Nepal. Emily is a full-time English and Geography teacher, and we just don't understand how she finds the time to stay so fit! When she's not working, she can be found trail running, road biking and ski touring, and this year she competed in the CCC and the Etape du Tour. Despite claiming to do no training, she notches up some pretty fast times and is certainly one of their fittest leaders.

Gary Daines
A qualified International Mountain Leader, Gary is based in Sallanches and guides many of their snowshoeing and trekking trips both in the Chamonix area and further afield. He is also an accredited Duke of Edinburgh Award assessor, and this winter he has been training and assessing their Jura snowshoe groups. In addition to having a brilliant laugh most of the time, Gary is also capable of being serious and we love his philosophical approach. It makes him a both a wonderful leader for Cloud 9's adult groups and an inspirational teacher for their youth groups.

Lindsay Cannon
A qualified International Mountain Leader, Cross-Country Ski Instructor, Yoga Teacher & Trail Cycle Leader, Lindsay puts the rest of us to shame: and she's also pretty handy on a mountain bike! Linsday is bubbly, brimming with enthusiasm and energy, and you may recognise her from the many BBC wildlife and environmental progammes she presents in her spare time. Lindsay has been exploring the Alps for the last 20 years - she not only knows every nook and cranny of the Tour du Mont Blanc and Chamonix area, but is an expert on some of their lesser-known trails such as their Snowshoe Traverse of the Chablais and their Wild Tuscany hikes.

Pablo Herráez
A qualified International Mountain Leader and Aspirant Mountain Guide, Pablo is an excellent guide and leader and has quite a following! Pablo is originally from Spain, but came to the Alps to pursue his passion for the mountains. He's not bad at Spanish, and his English and French are pretty good too!

• "Emma - you are wonderful!! Thank you. Travelling the Haute Route with you from Verbier to Zermatt we could not have chosen a better guide. Just the right balance between fun and safety. I would not trek again without you and would recommend you to anyone. Thank you for taking my son on the next leg without me!! Until next time!!" - Sir Richard Branson
• "Although we were experienced Scottish hill walkers we hadn't snowshoed before and weren't familiar enough with the hills near Chamonix to be able to pick suitable objectives. But Emma, at Cloud 9 Adventure, understood what we wanted to do. She quickly had us moving confidently around on Snowshoes and guided us up three tops (Tête de la Sallaz, Mont de l'Arpille and Le Petit Croisse Baulet) all within easy reach of Chamonix. As well as being a very knowledge guide Emma was easy and entertaining company, we would definitely recommend Cloud 9 Adventure and Emma to friends." - Trip Advisor
• "Emma is delightful company. But more importantly, her experience as a trained mountain guide meant that I felt completely safe, in spite of fresh snow and serious avalanche risks in the area. Emma also came prepared with a few extra things like gloves, and she was generous with information about the region, mountaineering and her own personal experiences (I asked a lot of questions!!). She made my day in the mountains something to remember for a lifetime. Thank you Emma!" - Trip Advisor
• "We were put in contact with cloud 9, via our mountain adventure accommodation booking and we are so glad that we chose to do this activity. We had a wonderful full day hike, we were picked up at 830am from our accommodation by the friendly guide Emma. Emma drove us to a bakery to pick up our lunch and snacks for the walk. We were concerned about our booking because there was very little snowfall in Chamonix when we arrived, however, Emma had located an alternative snow walk experience in a nearby area (about an hour drive away) which was equally beautiful. We had made a private booking for four and the walk was appropriate for all our abilities. We could have walked to a higher peak depending on the overall group fitness. We had a great day, a lot of fun and I highly recommend this activity to folks of all fitness and ability. It's a wonderful alternative to skiing and we managed to walk into places that felt relatively untouched which was a great change from the bustle of the ski slopes. Emma was friendly and informative giving advice about appropriate footwear in advance of the day and equally friendly throughout the walk. I really appreciate the efforts she went to in order to find a suitable hiking venue for our day hike despite the lack of snow in Chamonix itself. It was about 5 to 10. Degrees C throughout our walk so we were all warm enough with normal hiking gear and waterproof footwear. I wore thermals and a vest with a hiking jacket that could be removed when we were in the sun. Remember your glasses and sunscreen as it gets bright in the sun!" - Trip Advisor
• "We recently booked Emma for 2 days of snowshoeing We are seasoned walkers but had never done any snow shoe walking before. Our first day was introductory and we did a relatively easy ascent up to the top of a mountain. Day 2 was harder but there is no gain without pain and we did the most brilliant walk up quite a challenging mountain. The weather and the scenery were awesome with snow up to the top of the signposts. Our experience was superb in every respect. Emma runs her company Cloud 9 and she is a very professional qualified mountain leader. She is very personable, well informed and knowledgeable. Being a small business you get very personal service, her group sizes vary but are never big and she also does personal guiding. Client safety is an important issue and we wore tracking devices at all times in the snow. For an amazing day out in the mountains or the Tour de Mont Blanc then check her out." - Trip Advisor