Ski Grand Massif

A luxurious catered chalet in the French Alps

excellent early snow in the Grand Massif

24

Dec

2011

The first week of the season has been the best conditions I have encountered in the 10 years we have been skiing in the Grand Massif. We have spent the last week skiing powder every day. With snow depths between 30cm and 2.4 metres, there is a really good base, it bodes well for the rest of the season.

new arrival at chalet andelain

12

Dec

2011

BB is a 12 week old jack russell bitch. We have known her mother for a few years now (birdie from les molliets restaurant) and she is a lovely natured little dog so when we heard she was having puppies we reserved one. She arrived on Friday and is already well settled in, even ”big boy” cat seems to like her, or at least tolerates her.

Les Carroz opening early

08

Dec

2011

Lifts in Les Carroz are opening this weekend 10/11th december following heavy snowfall over the past few days.

les Carroz VTT Sunday 31st july

18

Sep

2011

This years Les Carroz VTT (mountain bikes) saw some excellent new courses. I opted to do the expert course with my old mate Warren. Course was 55km with about 1200m of climbing and 3000m of descent. Warren used my santa cruz nomad, its a bit heavy but he’s well fit and still managed to kick every ones ass up the hills. We took about four hours or so to get around the course, there was numerous food and drink stops en route. This is a great weekend of cycling for mountain bikers of all levels. There are four courses from a gentle 10 km up to the extreme course which is about 70km and 3500m of climbing.

Day trip to ski the Vallée Blanche

19

Apr

2011

7 of us set off from Chalet Andelain and drove to Chamonix (40mins) where we met up with two guides, Jean-Luc and Francois. We took the cable car to the Aiguille du Midi at 3800 metres and, from there, skied down the Vallée Blanche, tracking the famous Mer de Glace glacier all the way to the Montenvers railway for the ride back to Chamonix.

The start is a walk down a fairly precipitous ridge but, with ropes each side to hold on to and all roped together with a guide, it was a relatively easy walk down to start skiing. We split into two parties, with three doing the classic route with Francois, and four doing a more adventurous route with Jean-Luc. We all met up again for lunch a bit lower down on the glacier itself and then skied the rest of the route together.

Skiing was fantastic with the most amazing scenery. On occasions the guide would tell us to stay in his tracks and he really meant exactly in his tracks as there would be a crevasse maybe no more than 1 metre off his track. We all finished about 5 hours after the start, tired but full of memories of a wonderful day out.

For guests of Chalet Andelain we are able to arrange day trips to snowboard or ski the Vallée Blanche. Contact us for more details.