Activity Reviews in Chamonix

Keep an eye out for the weather in the mountains!

Summer 2013 may have been a late starter (snow in June?!) but since it decided to get its act together it has been a scorcher, with a day spent indoors feeling like a day wasted.

So it's been a mixed few days here in Chamonix, with some fairly hot days followed by a couple of days of rain and cloud passing through, but not enough to stop the many visitors coming to the area. So far it has been an amazing summer in the French Alps with so many sunny days, but enough rain from time to time to cool the air and top the rivers up, it's no wonder why everyone wants to be in Chamonix right now!

The high mountains were taken over on Friday by a swarm of budding alpinists keen to make the most of the perfect weather and ideal conditions

Hello again! After what the American TV shows call a “hiatus” we have begun to emerge from the cocoon that is inter-season and stretch out our wings to embrace summer.

Autumn is well and truly on us now and the trees are a blaze of russet and golden hues. With the exception of a couple of fairly miserable days at the end of last week, we're still enjoying some pretty beautiful weather. Whilst the temperature has noticeably dropped in the morning, I haven't had to scrape my car windscreen yet but you can tell that it won't be long. It's currently about 4 degrees first thing but then it was still getting up to a very pleasant 25 degrees down the valley last week if the temperature reading in Passy is to be believed. It certainly felt very warm and humid as we popped down for a quick trot around the lake last Wednesday evening.

With the high pressure settling the snow pack and transforming the slopes into perfect corn I thought it would be a great time to accomplish one of my long term goals of skiing Mont Blanc from the summit.

There is some great weather around the valley at the moment, however it is a lot cooler as soon as the sun goes away and it's beginning to feel a lot like Autumn has arrived. A few more lifts closed this weekend and the last of the main lifts will close this weekend at Les Houches and Flegere.

Has anyone else noticed the incredible sunsets we've been having up here recently? The weather's been ace most days, which is wonderful, but come 8- or 9-pm, the Mont Blanc Massif Lightshow starts up. Tonight's sunset was incredible; blue sky over the golden brown Aiguilles, dark grey over the snowy peak and ice cliffs of Mont Blanc, white clouds over Brevent. Yesterday, by some atmospheric miracle, there was a thick white line tracing the contours of the mountain range, which contrasted beautifully against the gunmetal grey sky. The number of tourists lining the street taking photos make Rue Docteur Paccard feel like Manhattan Island.

Now that autumn is definitely in the air, excitement is starting to build up for the coming winter season. There's still plenty of hiking that can be done and autumn can be great for bike riding but the anticipation of winter is definitely growing stronger by the day. Especially after I spent yesterday in harness and crampons on the glacier with Icicle Mountaineering.

Just over two weeks into February and things haven’t looked like slowing down much in Chamonix! Big storms have come through dropping even more of the good stuff on everything and anything not protected under a roof. Resort skiing throughout the valley has been fantastic, with repeated reports of many people claiming to have had ‘the best day ever’- until another one takes its place!