What's Going On CHAMONIX? | Summer 2024

[@chamonixskibum]

00:00 Intro 01:01 Early June 01:26 Marathon du Mt Blanc 02:06 Enduro World Series 02:16 Arcteryx Alpine Academy 03:14 DH MB Les Gets 03:40 Climbing World Cup 04:34 CosmoJazz 05:00 Argentrail 05:23 Fete des Guides 05:53 UTMB 07:03 Outro

[@simonorr594]

Thanks! Great vid. - I'm sharing it with the GM and CEOs of our local resorts here. They really could do more to make them 4 season, and we are only 2 hours from NYC. Wish we had the eMTB riding and rentals over here.

[@chamonixskibum]

The advantage we have is that chamonix was a town before skiing, and it will still be a town long after all the snow is gone. Yes they put a lot of effort in to run these big events, but people will come regardless, just to see Mt blanc!

[@thomassauka]

Hopefully walking the Tour du Mont Blanc 31aug to 8th September 2025 and I’m a big UTMB fan so hope I will catch a bit on the Saturday before I set off

[@iwade1984]

Where was the picture taken that you've used on the thumbnail please? Thanks

[@chamonixskibum]

Flegere near the mid station. It's the snow cannon reservoir but it is absolutely stunning in summer

[@ritchxmusic]

What kind of budget is good to stay there?

[@chamonixskibum]

There are options for any budget. Sure the more money you have, the more choice you have. But especially in summer there are lots of campsites available and many many vanlifers around. So you can make it work on very little, but if you want to stay in a hotel and eat out every night then you are going to need to be rich!

[@Sh1tfaceMagee-db3px]

@@chamonixskibum Also, if travelling in the shoulder weeks of june-july & you don't feel like camping, cannot afford granite sinked hotel rooms then check out the "maeva apartments" which we often utilise as a cheap rooms , balcony to sit out on, self catering, just 3 mins walk across the bridge onto the main strip.. maeva / Résidence Pierre & Vacances La Rivière If landing in Geneva (likely) then if you are not getting a transfer, EV's are now available for hire (reduce your footprint) they gave us an ioniq 6 the other week (the porsche lines one) which has plenty of range, decent chargers in cham & sallanche (a zero energy run down the valley with enough regen to negate the energy used for the journey back to cham) ..we'd have preferred smaller due to chams parking spaces (underground squeeze) ...do it for the mountains, & use it to hit up the surrounding resorts such as verbier across the border back in switzerland, but if on foot, getting to cham is simple & the train system is worth knowing about for the views alone, coming up the valley & through the back end of town is enlightening before you hit the main strip, not to mention you will be more attuned to cham transport for visitors card for free travel up & down the valley on trains, & the town "mulet" electric 14 seater bus, again if budgeting this is handy, you can drop down to sallanches, shop cheaper (carrefour is excellent there, plus more EV chargers) & the supermarket cafe meals there are excellent for the money (remember they know how to cook a steak properly in france, & a burger ;) Other affordable places i'd recommend for more spacious self catering in a bigger apartment is the flat (1x double bed, 1x bunk bed, 1x living room pull out sofa double) sleeps 4 comfortably, washer drier, above the excellent bar "elevation 1904" try the cherry beer (phenomenal) balcony windows that open fully allowing for good breezes if staying in the summer, but you are in an area of town where noise doesn;t necessarily finish when the bar closes & the town rises early! ...earplugs advised, this flat has lift access & one tight underground parking space, having stayed at both they are great for different reasons, but we are travelling minset of "granite is for the mountains not the worktops" so budget reflects that, ..I also take my sous vide stick to cook for the family whilst out there, saves on pricey steaks in restaurants whilst not missing out on steaks, for cheap eats, I heartily recommend "le caveau" (used to be known as the place downstairs with the sleeping dog! (aila) ...great value, quiet dining of a quality far better than just a few doors up. Cham is evolving, when I first came to town (pre millenium) there was a petrol station at the far end of the main strip (near zero g) now apartments, coffee bars (good ones) Beer o-clock ( self-service by rfid card by the millilitre) green bar (paulos) for decent pasta cheap! ..just taken over & renovating in early june 2024 for opening early july or sooner, this end has become more "hip" & expensive (old restaurant that did good plat du jour for 15 odd euro per person 3 courses, inc fondue if you wished, has been replaced by a cocktail mixology bar (oh dear) ...if visiting in the summer please get the bus (free) to the summer chair lift from mid-day (Glacier des Bossons chair lift) to the cafe at the top, sit on the balcony overlooking the glacier, watch & listen to the ice falls, (thus the afternoon heat creating the melt) a few years back in may, temp there was 27+ c, so lots of ice fall for wife to watch with coffee whilst we hiked trails. This end of town fits in with the maeva apts (booking dates & prices generally available 12 weeks ahead) ,..we had had to plan round the french booking system a few times to find out when dates are released for rooms. The apt I mentioned for the other end of town is found on booking.com, the management are multi-lingual & the office for key drop off day is easy to get to on foot, affordable but with a bit more luxury, wood floors, galley kitchen etc.. neither option pricey for cham if you plan accordingly. Likely you won't come to cham valley just the one time, able bodied or sports buggered limbs, it is a great place to book a visit & see seasonal changes. (ie limited mobility is fine here, on the whole, as long as lungs aren't too knackered, & if bringing toddlers to teens with you the only ice cream place to go is "chamon-ice" for daily bribery & corruption, open till late, all else "walk on by" Saturday market (starts at 8 am -1pm) is superb for food (samples aplenty) & crafts, on the square across from the alpina (sitting on top of a big public underground car park) good first morning bleary eyed savoie immersion if you land on a friday in the summer season.

[@Sh1tfaceMagee-db3px]

I wrote you a long reply, & stuck it in the wrong place,...sorry, replied accidentally to @chamonixskibum instead (see below)

[@Sh1tfaceMagee-db3px]

Can you do us (viewers) a favour & find out what the groundworks over at the ski school hq, & les planards meadow above parc de loisers please, daughter & I were hiking in that direction the other week, to us it looked like centenary olympics money may be spent on rejuvenating the learning area via constant snowmaking (lets face it it has been dead for town access beginners for too long, so is that's what is going on? I asked in town tourist office (no idea) ditto across the road at guides hq, & got nothing out of them. Care to walk up past the luge & enlighten us please? ..I have massive reservations regarding the eco associated problems of snow making, however the location to get 1st time winter trip family with a small kid on / off slopes easily has been cramping the reputation of chamonix as a family spot for too long, ..my own kid gritted her teeth in the storms of 2009 (5 her first visit to cham) & just had the toddlers run (the travelator in the distance from short Sameran chairlift. Being a frequent visitor to Cham & asked a lot about its potential, I have a stumbling block whilst recommending it for the rest of the family. So whilst my kid is now an adult the empty, devoid of both snow & activity so close to town area could be a really big leg up for an adult coaxing a few hard hours of slope learning, rest & reward structure which that area could give with the proper action plan, I have fingers crossed for this one! (though Le tour wins when gentle ski-lap structure begins) It would be nice not to have to say "cham is great winter ski-ing BUT" ...and you well know a good winter experience increases the likelihood of folk coming back for summer (& learning far more about the mountains / environment) Please take a look around, ask about & let us in on the plan(ards) ;)

[@chamonixskibum]

I will have a look around but I doubt my investigative skills are any better than yours. And honestly, Chamonix is a great year round town, but a family ski resort it is not. I would never recommend it to people looking for a family/mixed abity ski resort. Chamonix is an extreme skiing paradise, but it is not what people would expect from a 'resort'

[@Sh1tfaceMagee-db3px]

@@chamonixskibum Thanks for that, you have the advantage of being local & doubtless far better french language skills than me, so they may well crack for you! it would be groundbreaking for cham town IF that is what is happening, getting toddlers up & running usually leads to continuation at the same resort for a good few years (we hammered banff for a month "here & there" back in the day, planard would be logical to me, all the kid play stuff that is sited there & under-used "just add 100% snowcover" when we hit up banff it was Norquay which positively excelled for catering to toddlers first time out, Sunshine when they got a bit older, so as a parent I can see how it could really let loose a new revenue stream with enough to push kids without overly tiring them, easy to get back to lodgings, or lie in then drag em onto the slopes, likely not even needing a ski-bus, to get there, great resort booking motivators. Good luck sleuthing around!