March Skiing 2005

As some of you will know, Chamonix in France is the the world capital for extreme skiing and a place I have grown to love over the last few years. What better place to take the children for their first experience of real snow and to give them a taste of the thrills of skiing?

We flew to Geneva from London Gatwick via Easy Jet. Considering we paid next to nothing for the tickets (a little more than a trip to the cinema) we were treated very well and everything worked like clockwork. Budget car rental gave us a lovely mazda 6, which was a joy to drive, even though it looked like it had done 10 laps at Arena Essex :-)

The drive from Geneva to Chamonix takes about an hour (less if the motorway is clear, as it was for us) and we drove through Chamonix centre to the village of Les Praz, where we were staying at the hotel Les Rhododendrons.

Hotel Les Rhododendrons

Chamonix had had about 12 inches of fresh snow in the days before we arrived, so even in the valley the snow was around two foot deep. (Our Mazda is the middle car here.)

This is Les Praz as seen from the Aiguille du Midi (3842m !!!). It was -20 when we were up there, the camera stuck to my exposed finger at one point! This was the only time on the whole holiday when we felt cold.

It’s difficult to describe the views from this height. Photos just don’t do it justice. The air is thin this high and can make the children a little dizzy, so take care with the young ones if you go. You do, however, feel like your sitting on top of the world...

From the Aiguille du Midi again, looking South-west towards Les Houches, where the children had their skiing lesions.

As I said before, on top of the world...

Onto first skiing lesson