Chamonix Guidebooks/Maps

[Wymontchoppers]

My wife and I are planning a trip in late March/early April. Combination of day tours vs. a couple of nights in regional huts. Any suggestions for good guidebook/map resources? Amazon/other web links super helpful. Thanks.

[auvgeek]

Others have way more experience than I do, but I can tell you what worked well for us on our first trip:

The Mont Blanc off-piste ski guide book is often recommended and the place we rented had it on the coffee table, but it only lists pretty mellow stuff. Could be enough stuff to keep you busy for a while, depending on your ability and desires, but we found the good lines through word of mouth, and then subsequent research on cham topo or camp to camp websites. Since I don't speak French and I'm pretty terrible at languages, the hardest part for me was spelling a route name after it was spoken to me well enough to type it into google—my phonetic translations were often laughably wrong. I would carry a small notebook and pen around if you plan on asking people where they skied.

http://www.chamonixtopo.com/skiing/
https://www.camptocamp.org/waypoints...grands-montets

If you're not used to the Toponeige ski rating system (we weren't), it's a bit of a learning experience to discover what's in your comfort zone. Keep in mind the ratings are a purely technical rating—doesn't account for conditions, exposure, rappels, etc. Obviously, safest thing is to start with something well within your limits and slowly increase each day—might make for a boring trip but better that than getting in way over your head.

I personally found that there are extremely varied abilities in Cham—some people talk a big game but don't really get after it while some truly talented skiers/climbers downplay their ability. You have to try to figure out who really knows what they're doing and who's full of it before you take advice on what you should ski.

We're heading back in early April; can't wait!!

[LeoK]

If you are into freeride from the lifts go get "Chamonix Off Piste" (Vamos). The Map to get is the official french "IGF" map in 1:25 000 with basic ski routes in it.

[Gorilla]

Mont Blanc and the Aguilles Rouges: a guide for skiers by Anselme Baud is the pick of the guide books. It is more ski mountaineering focused than the Vamos guide. It also has an entertainingly wide variety of routes. Needs to be used with the relevant 1:25 maps.

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[chump]

Mont Blanc and the Aguilles Rouges: a guide for skiers by Anselme Baud is the pick of the guide books. It is more ski mountaineering focused than the Vamos guide. It also has an entertainingly wide variety of routes. Needs to be used with the relevant 1:25 maps.

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That book is amazing just to flip through. More dream lines than I can count in there!

[auvgeek]

Mont Blanc and the Aguilles Rouges: a guide for skiers by Anselme Baud is the pick of the guide books. It is more ski mountaineering focused than the Vamos guide. It also has an entertainingly wide variety of routes. Needs to be used with the relevant 1:25 maps.

Link to where this can be purchased for a reasonable amount? Last I checked, it wasn't available, except at absurd prices.

[hutash]

Link to where this can be purchased for a reasonable amount? Last I checked, it wasn't available, except at absurd prices.

Google really isn't that hard to use

https://play.google.com/store/books/...Fct7fgodq1QETg

[auvgeek]

Google really isn't that hard to use

https://play.google.com/store/books/...Fct7fgodq1QETg

I did google before I posted, but I somehow missed all the e-books results. Thanks for the link.

[Gorilla]

Seems to be quite widely available in the UK right now. Looks like they have finally reprinted the thing. While it is a great book, it clearly isn't worth the silly money people wanted for it previously.

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[EpicSteeze]

The Baud book is great but has, imho, been superseded as the reference for Chamonix skiing by the Toponeige / Volopress book(s) - which are both more complete and more up to date (my understanding is that there are lines in the Baud book that are no longer skiable / significantly changed by glacial recession / serac development etc).

The Mont Blanc book (http://www.volopress.net/volo/spip.php?article456) is the main one to have for Chamonix, and maybe also the Chablais version, which covers the Aiguilles Rouges (http://www.volopress.net/volo/spip.php?article457). Both of these are available in English.

The other books Mont Blanc Off Piste, Vamos, etc are good too and could be a good place to start but are nothing like as complete. Like others have said, start cautiously if you're not used to the ratings and brush up on your glacier skills - just because a line is in the guidebooks definitely doesn't mean it's safe!

For maps, the iPhiGéNie app is a great topo / gps map for France. If you use Gaia GPS I understand the French maps may recently have been added to that also.

Like someone else said, the camptocamp website is also a very useful resource for recent conditions / trip reports etc.

[auvgeek]

The Mont Blanc book (http://www.volopress.net/volo/spip.php?article456) is the main one to have for Chamonix, and maybe also the Chablais version, which covers the Aiguilles Rouges (http://www.volopress.net/volo/spip.php?article457). Both of these are available in English.

Awesome links! Thank you. I just browsed an online preview of a few pages of the first one, and it looks like an awesome resource.

The stuff that got skied in the '70s just blows my mind. For example, I had no idea the direct route of NE face of the col de la Verte was skied in '77—I only knew of Andreas Fransson's descent where the videographer (Bjarne Salen) said it was one of the steepest descents he'd ever seen. Just goes to show my ignorance of Cham culture.

[rod9301]

I have these two books, selling them for$40 plus mailing. Mont Blanc ski tours, chamonix hors piste. In English and French.

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[Wymontchoppers]

Thanks everybody!