Spring Skiing: Chamonix and Courmayeur

After being inspired by the winter Olympics, and thinking that we didn't want to go a whole season without getting on the slopes, we decided to squeeze in some spring skiing in the French Alps with our friends Tim and Jess.  We had heard a lot of great things about Chamonix and Tim and Jess had both been before.  We stayed at an awesome chalet in a cute little town right next to Chamonix called Argentiere.  The chalet was right at the base of the Grands Montets skiing area and close to some great restaurants.  Here are a couple shots of the chalet:

views from the chalet:

 cocktail hour:

 our room:

 view out our skylight:

After flying into Geneva and making a stop in Chamonix proper for some kebabs and take-away beer (which in Chamonix apparently means pouring it into a plastic coke bottle) from the Mont Blanc Brewery we headed for our chalet in Argentiere.

The first day we headed for the Brevent Flegere skiing area, which is right in Chamonix.  Since it was Friday, and so late in the season, it was not crowded at all.  The snow was pretty slushy as it was quite warm and sunny, but it was beautiful.  Around lunchtime, we came across a giant airbag set up for practicing jumps that anyone could go on.  We all tried it out a couple times.  There are videos of Dan and Tim jumping but unfortunately, when Dan was supposed to be taping Jess and I he had the camera flipped and instead we have 2 videos of Dan yelling "faster" at us and then laughing.

spring skiing! (we didn't actually ski in tank tops but it was pretty warm, 50-55 degrees)

After a great, and tiring, first day of skiing we headed into town for an apres ski beer.  We were then planning to hop in our hot tub at the chalet but not only were the jets not working, it was unbearably hot.  So after some angry texts with the chalet owner, we settled for drinks inside and then headed to dinner.  Jess and Tim found an amazing fondue place last time they were in Argentiere, tucked away down a dirt road (we even had to traverse a giant puddle caused from snow melt)  The fondue was delicious and well worth the drive.

 world's smallest water glasses:

The next day we drove through the Mont Blanc tunnel into Italy to check out Courmayeur.  We all loved Courmayeur and thought it was the best day of skiing of the trip.  Conditions were still pretty slushy by the end of the day but the back side of the mountain wasn't sun facing so the snow was better over there.  The views of the town and back towards Mont Blanc were great.

After skiing we went into town in search of some pizza since we were in Italy.  We walked into two restaurants but were told "no, no, no, this is Italy, everything is closed from 3-7pm."  We did eventually find a spot selling take-away pizza and then brought it over to a little bar serving beer.  It was delicious and hit the spot after a day of skiing.  As we were sitting having our beers the U.S. synchronized skating team(?) walked by as they were apparently having some kind of competition in town that weekend.  Much to Dan's embarrassment, Jess and I chanted "U.S.A." rather enthusiastically;-)

When we got back to our chalet we were able to reset the fuse and get our hot tub working so we had a well deserved soak before heading to dinner at a steak frites restuarant in Argentiere.  It was another delicious meal followed by several rounds of a British trivia video game in the loft at the chalet (of which Dan won every time, of course.)

Our last day we skied Grands Montets.  We took the lift right near our chalet up and over the clouds.  What looked like was going to be a pretty cloudy day ended up being gorgeous.  While it was pretty tough to get our bodies going for a third straight day of skiing, it ended up being worth it as the views from Grand Montets were great and at parts you could ski right alongside a glacier which was pretty cool.  In the afternoon, we waited in line to take the cable car up to the summit, as Tim said the views shouldn't be missed.  Unfortunately, the entire upper section was icy moguls, which I did not fare so well on.  After having my skis snap off twice, I had to have Dan come rescue me and slide the rest of the way down on my butt. Not the highlight of my weekend but really the only downside in an overall awesome trip.

Argentiere glacier:

at the summit:

Switzerland, France, and Italy all in one weekend, not bad.  The perks of living in Europe!