Activity Reviews in Chamonix

There’s much more to Chamonix than skiing and snowboarding - there’s also a thriving arts scene with regular exhibitions, workshops, concerts and more.

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.

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!

So a few rainy days this week cooled the air down a lot from the previous week, but now we begin a period of sunny crazy hot conditions again! It's lovely in the valley, not too many people around but still plenty to do if you like the outdoors and fresh mountain air.

After a cracking weekend weather wise we had some amazing storms at the beginning of the week – a whole day of thunder & lightning was pretty spectacular but not so good if you'd planned to take a trip up the Aiguille du Midi for the view. As usual it cleared as quickly as it came and the temperatures are back to high 20s with some amazing alpine glow sunsets. Walking around town confirms that the summer tourist season is in full swing, with a real buzz in the shops, cafes & bars.

The sun is out again, and with it has come the people. Out of no-where, tens of enormous 53-seater coaches descended on the Les Planards parking lots with determined vengance, quickly discharging their payloads of late-middle-aged-mountain-fun-seekers. The result? A clogged Rue Docteur Paccard, and a lot of happy shopkeepers with jangling pockets. The impact that a bunch of water vapour can have on the livelihoods of so many valley traders is incredible.

Summer is starting to fade now and autumn is definitely in the air; it is still plenty warm enough to enjoy sunny afternoon hikes and al fresco lunches but the mornings are getting a bit nippy and there have been a few more rainy days of late than we've been accustomed to recently.

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.

This last week has been shaping up as the real start of the summer season, with hot days, thunderstorms at the end of the afternoon, noticably more people around, and a sporting atmosphere.

Despite a fairly unsettled forecast for last week, the weather was actually pretty nice for the majority of it, just the usual late afternoon thunderstorms causing folk to run and duck for cover. Higher up the mountain though, these storms resulted in some very severe weather conditions that meant a busy week for the rescue services and sadly resulted in tragedy on more than one occasion. If you're planning on tackling any of the high mountain itineraries in the area this summer, the local rescue service, the PGHM, cannot stress enough the importance of checking out the forecast for your chosen route….and more importantly, heeding what it says! At least one of the incidents that occurred last week may well have been avoided if the group had waited a day or two until conditions calmed down. You can find the latest weather forecast in English here and at the Tourist Office, but the Office de la Haute Montagne also post regularly updated weather bulletins (in English) and can also offer endless advice and information on the latest route conditions.

The 15th of August weekend is a busy one in the Chamonix diary, and the blue skies over the valley this morning told us that it was going to be particularly full-on. So we decided to get in the car and get the hell out as fast as possible, heading out of town on a three-country, tourist-evasion loop of Mont Blanc.