Chamonix Activity Report: 1st July 2007
Apologies for there not being an updated rock report recently, but I had to make a work related trip back to the UK. However unwelcome the trip back to England was, it served as a useful reminder of how lucky I am to be able to spend a few months of the summer in Chamonix.
Luckily I was still here for the Fete de la Musique, which took place on midsummers evening. After a long dinner with friends, where we managed to drink the restaurant out of rose wine, the evening was in full swing. Various live bands played out in the streets of town until the early hours - I couldn't say when the music stopped as when I excused myself and dragged my tired (possibly tipsy!) body home at about 2.30am the night was still gathering pace. Two highlights of the evening were a very good young French band that played in the square opposite the fire station (playing excellent up to date English covers) and the DJ mix-off between Soulfood bar and Bar'd up that kept everyone dancing down the Rue de Moulin all night. Its always fun when the people of Chamonix come out in force, the atmosphere was brilliant. If you missed that night make sure that you're around for the climbing festival which starts in a couple of weeks, the evening sessions are fascinating and very sociable. Also look out for the cham-biere festival at the MBC on 13th July and the Bastille day celebrations which usually supply an abundance of Chamonix atmosphere and entertainment.
This weekend saw the town filling up, a sign that the summer is in full flow. The Chamonix marathon drew in large crowds of spectators and over 2000 competitors across the various events. For those of you that know – the Chamonix marathon is nothing like the city marathons that we see on television, this is 26 miles or 42 kilometres of gruelling climbs, descents and changes in terrain from wide tarmac to rocky single track paths. The route starts in the centre of town heading up the valley towards Argentiere. Carrying on up to the Col du Montets and through the pretty little village of Le Buet, the runners continue through Vallorcine, pass over the Col du Posettes, Le Tour and Montroc before traversing the hamlets of Frasserands and Tré-le-champ. The route continues to climb up to La Flégère where after crossing the magnificent Charlanon comb, the incline increases slightly before arriving at the finish line in Planpraz (2050m). By the time the competitors arrive at the finish with 42 kilometres under their belts they will have ascended a total of 2230 metres and descended over 1000 metres. Nothing in Chamonix is done by halves! We went up to the finish in Planpraz to cheer the runners on in their final painful strides. It was quite inspiring to see the athletes cross the line some of which still looked remarkably fresh. Unfortunately after wards I felt incredibly guilty that I had done nothing all weekend except drink beer and eat badly. I would imagine though that a few well earned beers were drunk in town on Sunday by satisfied racers.
It looks like the next few days are going to be dominated by rain, but hopefully we will start to see some sunnier spells, and temperatures warming up towards the weekend. As long as you're not afraid of a little rain there's still plenty of fun to be had. Enjoy.
Piste Maps for Chamonix (pdf format), Les Houches (jpg format), Cross-country skiing (pdf format), and Mountain-bike trails (pdf format)
Current status for opening of Pistes & Lifts
Chamonix Webcam Index
Useful Links
Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research
French Avalanche Research Institute
Meteo France - Mountain weather and avalanche conditions bulletins (in French)
Henry's Avalanche Talk - popular avalanche training sessions based in French Alps as well as translation of current avalanche conditions
PisteHors.com - Backcountry Skiing and Snowboarding News in English for the French Alps. Excellent coverage of avalanche safety and advice
Additional snow and weather information provided, with thanks, by meteo.chamonix.com and the Tourist Office
