I have to admit that in the past, I’ve had something against going to Europe. I either thought that it would be too expensive, or that somehow having that much access to the mountains was a bad thing. It seemed like I couldn’t put it off anymore, so my girlfriend Lori and I decided to plan a trip.

I contacted a friend of mine Matt Gerdes, who has been living in France for around 10 years now for some advice on where to go and stay. After contemplating the possibilities of traveling from country to country, or just planting ourselves in one spot to really get a feel for the place we decided to head straight to Chamonix, Fance and base there for the entire 3 week trip. Our intensions were to speedfly as much as possible and ski if we had to when the weather wasn’t cooperative for flying.

The Chamonix valley has 6 different ski areas that are all accessible without the need to drive a car. Free busses run up and down the valley about every 20 minutes if the area you want to go to isn’t a short walk away from where you are staying. There is also an electric train running up and down the valley.

We decided to stay at the Chalet Ski Station hostel that happens to be right at the base of the Brevent ski area, one of the “smaller” ski areas on the south facing side of the valley. It has about 1,500 vertical meters (5000 vertical feet) of terrain to offer and some amazing couliors that go the entire distance. The Chalet Ski Station also just happens to have a landing zone in the back yard and is 20 seconds from the gondola. not a bad warm up hill until Matt arrives in a couple days to show us around.

The Mont Blanc Unlimited ski pass is good at all 6 areas as well as a few in Italy and Switzerland. The (MBU) pass is also sold for as many days as you want and as the number of days goes up the price per day comes down. Lori and I bought the (MBU) pass for 19 days and it worked out to be about $45 a day for access to absolutely HUGE vertical relief and completely mind blowing terrain.

The summit of Mont Blanc is 4,810 meters (15,873′) high and the Chamonix valley elevation is 1030 meters(3,400′). The Aiguille du Midi tram system opens the door at the top at 3842 meters (12,679′) over 9000 vertical feet out of the valley floor in roughly a half hour. We witnessed one poor tourist pass out and fall flat on her face when the tram started unloading at the top one morning.

The Agiuille du Midi is the starting point for the famous Vallee Blanche ski run that leads down to the Mer de Glace and back to town via the Montenvers electric rack train. This is a huge glacier run with plenty of crevasses to fall into. It is well advised that you hire a mountain guide for this run and there are many to choose from. Lori and I were lucky enough to have Matt as our guide for a day and he showed us the way. We dubbed it “sight skiing” we couldn’t help but stop every other minute to just look around at the stunning scenery. Matt also suggested other skiing and flying options along the way.

Over the next few weeks Lori and I flew our speedwings as much as we could. We got to know the Grand Montets ski area flights down to the Argentiere glacier and Mer de Glace. We flew the Vallee Blanche and then conditions became ripe for the north face of the Aiguille du Midi, a 1,525 vertical meter (5,033 vertical foot) headwall of rock and ice. This was definitely the biggest goal of the trip. We were blessed with several days of great conditions. For multiple days we were able to cycle the north face all day long!

Whether you want to alpine climb, paraglide, ski mountaineer, speedfly, B.A.S.E. jump, or just sight ski, this place has it all. Chamonix is the birthplace of alpinism. Hundreds of worthy climbing and skiing objectives accessible in one day from town or a refuge. The access is amazing! The level of alpinism that has been achieved on the Mont Blanc massif because of the access is almost unthinkable. Very technical routes are being done on a daily basis. Lori and I hardly even scratched the surface.

Ahhhh Chamonix!
I can’t help but wish we were still there. I also can’t help but wonder what Leavenworth would be like if it grew up in Chamonix.

After a little Good Mood Food get on the electric train up the icicle, catch the tram up to the top of Enchantment peak, ski down to Inspiration lake, skin over to Prussik peak and climb it a few times, then maybe fly a paraglider back to town for a bratwurst. Then catch the Tumwater tram for a nice evening mountain bike ride. Not a bad day. What to do tomorrow?

The possibilities, oh the possibilities. It wouldn’t break my heart to see Leavenworth become a little more like a European village. Whatever happened to Bob Johnson’s Tumwater tram idea anyway? The trams in Chamonix were half full of people who just wanted to get the view, have some lunch and ride the tram back down, and the other half were skiers, climbers, and pilots all with huge smiles on their faces.