The bus ride out of Geneva to Chamonix was uneventful....but as we approached Chamonix the mountains started looming out of the horizon in the distance. Not your typical mountains in the distance, but magnificent rocky pinnacles and massive granite promotories that shoot up from the valley floor thousands of feet into the sky. One part of the landscape looked like their were five El Capitains (Yosemite) all overlaid on each other jutting out of the valley. I have never seen mountains like this. We also noticed that the snow level seemed very low on the mountains and almost none along the roadside and in the small towns we were passing. We learned later that it hasn't snowed since December 25th!
Arrived in Chamonix and walked with our gear to the Hotrl Croix Blanche, right in the center of town. What a quaint and lovely ski town this is! Established in the 1780's it is the ski Mecca of the Alps with the first winter Olympics held here. Our hotel was built in 1793.
Checked in and took a stroll around town...lots of international people here. Margaret and I are going nuts seeing all the major ski vendors here with their own shops...It's like the Madison Avenue of ski shops...very haute couture and edgy.
We learned from talking to several people that the skiing is not great now in Chamonix proper...with little new snow and warm weather recently it is very icy. The good snow is at the higher elevations, but requies you ski at an expert level. Chamonix makes Jackson Hole
look mild in my estimation. Advice we are getting is to go to Italy's Courmayeur to ski which is 30 minutes away...tons of snow and great conditions. Met with a mountain guide that evening at the hotel and arranged to be picked up at the hotel to ski Courmayeur on Monday.
Had a great meal at a brasserie this evening at the suggestion of our hotel concierge, Olivier. The town in the evening is lit up like you are in Disneyworld...very pedestrian and people milling around with the casino and nightclubs full of action!
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