Chamonix April 15-25th 2019

[ma7e98]

so it's good or not?

[isisis]

I'm not OP, but In general, this is how it works:




Depends! Are you comfortable with glacier travel, crevasse rescue, being in the high mountains with exposure, no avalanche control, quickly changing weather, route finding in these environments when you can't see shit and are blasted with cold winds etc? And are equipped to do so? Then by all means, go without a guide.




Guidebooks or eg: https://www.camptocamp.org/



There is one main guide company in Chamonix, and several other smaller ones. It's my impression that most of the guides who are from the region, work for the main one. It's called Le comagnie des guides de Chamonix. https://www.chamonix-guides.com/

These are all UIAGM mountain guides, which basically means you are next level badass and can be expedition leader, lead guide in Himalaya or whatever like it's kindergarden. They will take you ski touring, steep skiing etc, if they find you good enough.




This is where the guide comes in. If you don't know the answer, hire a guide.



Start researching for the classics. In Cham, that includes eg Valle Blanche (tons of variations from very easy to pretty steep), Glacier rond, Cosmiques couloir etc etc. There are just soo much. Fatmap is a good app for checking out things close to the resort. But bear in mind, that even if it's marked there, it doesn't mean it's safe. It can be very much deadly. But gives you an idea.

For touring it's just soo many options. Look at camp to camp, or hire a guide.

Edit: I forgot, this map is great when you are planing: https://map.geo.admin.ch It's swizz, but it covers Cham as well and is the best/most detailed I was able to find.

Edit2: Also good for researching stuff you want to do, guide or not: http://www.chamonixtopo.com/

I recently returned from a trip to the French Alps (Albertville area), and found an excellent guide (it was a group trip) using the following website:
https://www.explore-share.com

I'm assuming the guides must pay some type of commission, in order to have their trips listed on this website. Not sure if anyone else has booked a guide this way, but we really lucked out, with both the guide and the group.