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The Chamonix Mont Blanc Valley is an area synonymous with the best and most challenging in mountain sports world-wide and attracts the best practitioners of skiing, snowboarding, climbing and other disciplines each season. It attracts an even greater number of 'wannabes'. However, the resort is keen to point out that you don't have to 'live for skiing' to enjoy what Argentière has to offer: there are pisted trails for all standards. The terrain in The Grand Montets sector above the resort includes long, wide easy pistes for children and beginners; narrow and sloping combes for more advanced skiers and vast, wide long slopes for freestyle skiers or freeriders. Moguls form naturally on the la Herse or les Coqs pistes. There are endless off-piste ski routes to tackle with a guide. Starting from Les Grands Montets (3297 m) it's possible to ski right down to Argentière (1200 m), via the piste du Point de Vue or des Pylônes, then via the hotel Alternative and the Pierre à Ric, all part of Les Grands Montets with a vast number of alternatives are possible. You need to be in good physical condition to do the eight kilometre (five mile) descent over a 2100m vertical drop - one of the world's biggest lift served descents. The off piste descent on the Argentière glacier remains a great classic for advanced skiers, sweeping down between the seracs, turning in the Cordier couloir and discovering the Argentière massif, taking a guide is essential. Advanced skiers can go to Montenvers from the Aiguille des Grands Montets to get to Chamonix. This route combines great curves on the vast slopes of the Pas de Chèvre, skiing on the Nant Blanc glacier, crossing the Mer de Glace and a descent towards Chamonix through the forest. Again, taking a guide is essential. Until 1996 the Chamonix Valley was one of the few remaining major ski areas to offer separate passes for different sectors of its skiing, but no whole-resort pass, unless you purchased the huge "Skipass Mont-Blanc" covering well over 230 lifts in a dozen or so neighbouring ski areas. This changed with the introduction of a range of 'Chamski' passes carefully tailored after extensive research to meet the needs of the diverse winter sports market. The basic six day pass includes a day over in Courmayeur, normally subject to a supplement, and two trips on the high Grands Montets lifts, again usually charged at an additional fee. The Grand Montets is a major part of the area's reputation and Argentière has the most direct access to it via the famous cable car. The skiable descent possible is from 3275 metres to 1230 metres and the world's record vertical in one day was set here by Canadian Mark Jones, clocking up 51 descents - a vertical of 64,000 metres (210,000 feet). Of the other famous sectors, L'Aiguille du Midi is perhaps the most legendary, with the famous 22km off-piste descent through La Vallée Blanche (take a guide!). Finally mention must be made of historic Le Brévent, where Chamonix's and one of the Alps' first real ski lifts was installed. The descent there is around 1500m.
Country:
France
Resort height:
1272m
Top lift:
3275m
Bottom lift:
2023m
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