My wife and I visited Chamonix on our first trip to France 10 years ago in late September and ever since its been a dream to return and someday ski there. Finally made it happen last month! Working at a ski area, its hard to get away during the season, so we made mid-April plans and it all worked out as our area closed on April 8th. I knew we'd want to tour and not having glacier travel experience that we'd want a guide. As it happens, my wife's childhood friend and classmate became a mountain guide and has been based out of Chamonix full time for 4 years or so now, so we had that angle covered. We flew in to Geneva and got a shuttle to Chamonix on the 10th and took the 11th to settle in and recuperate from the flights.
Day 1 -April 12
Started at Brevent and rode up the Planpraz gondola to mid station, skied down to Cornu lift and rode that to start the tour. Low clouds in the valley gave way to brilliant bluebird in the alpine as we skinned above the Cornu top station.
Found some nice soft snow on a firm base up top as we dropped over to the other side of the Aiguilles Rouges
From there we skinned up a valley to another saddle and then a descent down to the Le Buet station to catch the train back to Chamonix
Super fun first day in the books!
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