Why Chamonix Is France’s Most Iconic Ski Area

An in-depth video review of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, a popular ski region located in the French Alps. Filmed in January and February 2024.

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0:00 Intro
0:38 Ski Region Breakdown
1:42 Size and Resort Interconnectivity
3:01 Mountain Aesthetic
3:43 Snow Quality and Resiliency
5:12 Storm Day Conditions
6:07 Valley Run Opening Schedules
6:43 Beginner Terrain
7:19 Intermediate Terrain
7:35 Advanced and Expert Terrain
8:41 Valleé Blanche Descent
9:14 Off-Piste and Extreme Terrain
11:09 Lifts
12:36 Crowd Flow
13:52 On-Mountain Facilities and Restaurants
14:25 Ease of Navigation
15:27 Après-Ski
15:50 Town and Nightlife
17:20 Lodging
17:45 Getting There and Transportation
18:24 Ikon and Mountain Collective Pass Access
19:41 Verdict
19:54 Lift Ticket Pricing
20:48 Score Breakdown and Rank

Overall Grands Montets Mountain Score: 72/100
Overall Brévent-Flégère Mountain Score: 64/100
Overall Le Tour Mountain Score: 63/100
Overall Les Houches Mountain Score: 56/100
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Snow:
🏔️ Grands Montets: 7
🏔️ Brévent-Flégère: 6
🏔️ Le Tour: 6
🏔️ Les Houches: 5
Resiliency:
🏔️ Grands Montets: 7
🏔️ Brévent-Flégère: 4
🏔️ Le Tour: 6
🏔️ Les Houches: 5
Size:
🏔️ Grands Montets: 4
🏔️ Brévent-Flégère: 5
🏔️ Le Tour: 5
🏔️ Les Houches: 5
Terrain Diversity:
🏔️ Grands Montets: 7
🏔️ Brévent-Flégère: 8
🏔️ Le Tour: 6
🏔️ Les Houches: 5
Challenge:
🏔️ Grands Montets: 9
🏔️ Brévent-Flégère: 7
🏔️ Le Tour: 5
🏔️ Les Houches: 4
Lifts:
🏔️ Grands Montets: 8
🏔️ Brévent-Flégère: 6
🏔️ Le Tour: 7
🏔️ Les Houches: 4
Crowd Flow:
🏔️ Grands Montets: 7
🏔️ Brévent-Flégère: 6
🏔️ Le Tour: 7
🏔️ Les Houches: 9
Facilities:
🏔️ Grands Montets: 7
🏔️ Brévent-Flégère: 5
🏔️ Le Tour: 5
🏔️ Les Houches: 6
Navigation:
🏔️ Grands Montets: 6
🏔️ Brévent-Flégère: 6
🏔️ Le Tour: 6
🏔️ Les Houches: 5
Mountain Aesthetic:
🏔️ Grands Montets: 10
🏔️ Brévent-Flégère: 10
🏔️ Le Tour: 10
🏔️ Les Houches: 9

[adamsegal]

I’ve lived in the Chamonix valley for 18 years and I have to say…
You’re completely right about pretty much everything.

[jmoz]

Dude you have such extreme intonation, go easy on it.

[djdksf]

I was there for 9 days in Jan. 2018 and had a fantastic time. I was lucky enough to know someone that lived there who made a really good guide. We spent two days at Grand Montet, which is truly majestic and pretty spicy in certain areas. The first couple days I was skiing with colleagues after a decent storm and we did Brevant the first day, then we hired guides to take us into the backcountry behind LaTour (amazing and mostly untracked) and the next day the Valle Blanche, which should be on any serious skier's bucket list. Visibility was crap that day, but the views were still jaw dropping and the crampon ridge traverse redefined the term 'pucker' for me. Bottomless drop on both sides. Yikes. We took some beginner Dutch friends to Les Houche one day too and had fun skiing and day drinking. 😁 The town is awesome. We spent a couple of nights hanging out at Maison des Artiste, which is both a nightclub and a recording studio. Bands come and record during the day, then perform at night, and while we were there a very cool Brazilian band was staying all week – we danced what was left of our legs off!

[ldmeyers]

Went there for spring break this year. It was our second time skiing as a family. My two older kids were fine, but my youngest and my wife had difficulty at Flegere and Brevent.

[kevinl]

I take Verbier over Cham for expert resort skiing. Cham is king for ski mountaineering. Totally different from resort skiing.

[tribalbc]

I guess I would agree with your analysis from a tourist average skier perspective. In fact unless you are a hard charging expert there's not a lot in Cham besides the views.
But for hardcore skiers and boarders it's a pilgrimage that must be made by all.
Hopefully they get the top tram running soon on the Grand Montets as that and the Augille De Midi are what make Chamonix truly special.

[MariusClausen-bfkw]

This video is very good, both informativ and nice.
I am a Norwegian and i had season skipass inn Chamonix for 2 years, 25 years ago. Living with som guys that are today counted as extrem skiing ledgends. I competed in Alpine skiing until i was 18 and i am a skiing instructor. I have skied more than 100 times from Augile du midi, and more than 100 persones have done their first Valle Blanche tour together with me. On a Bluebird day there are around 40-50 persones that meet up at the Agille du midi lift to be the first down the slopes, and I was among them. I have done most of the runs you can do in the valley. How ever i would say you should have wisited at least 5 other resorts in the alps before you go to Chamonix and be a realy good skier. Also some knowledge of avalanche and mountain climbing is required. It could be dangerous. I would rank Val D'Isere, 3Valles, Verbier and St Anton before Chamonix. Unles you, like me, are an extremly good skier, dont go there. If you have kids go somewhere else. No persone under 18 have the knowledge and experiense to go offpiste in Chamonix without a guide.

[hdh]

Can't wait for the 3 Valleys review!

[igoplacessometimes]

peak rankings dropped, hell yes 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 more France, gentlemen!

[alexetx]

While not Cham itself, if you add Evasion Mont Blanc, you get a pretty good deal.

Megeve/St G are massive with cruisers and superb restaurants. Add Les Contamines to the mix and you get a fantastic hidden gem for off piste and varied terrain.

All these no more than 20 min ride or 30 mins train with the Cham Express included in the Mont Blanc Unlimited pass.

I just came back from a 10 days ski Safari in the area and thoroughly enjoyed the variety and actually was happy I did not stay at a massive resort a la 3 Vallee/Paradiski style. :)

Pro tip: use St G as base and move easily between Les Contas, Cham and if you're curious enough, Courmayeur for great off piste.

[zaphod]

I wouldn't call Chamonix quintessential (quintessential means typical, which Chamonix certainly isn't), it's quite a unique place tbh and is a very different experience to most European resorts.

I would describe Cham as the holy grail of off piste skiing, and the 3 valleys as the holy grail of piste skiing. Espace Killy (Val d'Isere and Tignes) is the perfect mix of the two imo and is my favourite resort in the world.

Chamonix has some amazing off piste runs, but it's pretty crap if you want pisted skiing and/or don't want to have the bother of hiring a guide and carrying avi gear. There aren't much pisted runs, it's all broken up, and the pistes aren't particularly interesting.

3V has the biggest selectionn of pistes, but it's very piste dense, so there's little area for off piste skiing, as most of the slopes which are skiable are already marked runs.

EK has many amazing pistes which Cham lacks, but it's much less piste dense than 3V (for context EK and 3V both cover roughly the same area, but EK has half the pistes), which means there are lots of unpisted areas left for off piste skiing while still within reach of the lifts, many of which are incredible.

Also leaving some or all blacks ungroomed is very common in France, but not in Austria, Switzerlad and Italy, where all pistes are groomed, including blacks. France uses a slightly different grading system to the rest of Europe, with a green category that the others lack. This means that French blues and reds tend to be harder than the same colours in other countries, and French blacks are harder than any marked runs in those countries, though Austria have their skiroutes and Switzerland has the orange itineraries which are eqivalent to the french blacks.

One other point is that "trail", "lodge"/"lodging" and "tram" are americanisms, if you use those here many people will just give you a confused look or ask you what you mean, we generally say piste/run instead of "trail", cable car instead of "tram" and accomodation insead of "lodging". Obviously you could also use the local language if you speak it.

[CynthiaMidori]

Maaatteee 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 🔥🔥🔥 Thats the most comprehensive and detailed video for actual skiers / Snowboarders!! Thanks a lot ‼️ Subscribed straight away 🙌🏻🙌🏻

[francoisfoue]

You need to check Val d'Isere / Tignes which may rank first overall then Les Arcs which should be in the top ranked resorts, although a little lower

[dhowe]

I skied there six years ago. Spectacular skiing

[albrigo]

Great video in 4K with original footage, no bullshit. I would just add that it makes no sense to change ski area the same day in Cham, because you just have time to enjoy one of them at a time.

[TheSlipperySlope]

Chamonix is great for mountaineering and steep skiing, but for “regular”skiing, I much prefer Verbier.

[Jeckyll]

By far, the most informative video I have seen yet!

[Peakabike]

12:18 - not a decade, the intermediate Lognan burnt down in September 2018, get your facts straight if you're going to be "judging" ;-) Sadly a crane collapsed last fall and it won't before 26/27 now, at best.
Good point about the Bus system, it seems to have finally been revamped this year with less confusing routes, let's hope it makes things better.
And yes the valley trails at Brevent/Flégère are NEVER open, never seen them myself in 30+ year ;-)
You should have mentioned the "Combe de la Pendant" at Grands-Montets, a fabulous "off-piste" mountain where you can ski "safely" pretty much everywhere outside of the black Chamois run. And yes the "Retour Pendant" chair dates back to 1987 and it's slow...but gives you time to recover !

[wobbecraft]

you guys should cover the paradiski area, it is very big and versatile

[jsimon]

My biggest issue with Chamonix is the party atmosphere. It might be fine for some people. I stayed at the Folie. On arrival, my room faced the party deck with full DJ. I asked the front desk how long it went until. He said 2AM. I said change my room and they did. The circus atmosphere is fun, but if you just want to ski, eat, and sleep, a lot of Chamonix caters to a party crowd so shop around. Skiing was meh but it was late in the season. My guide said to take a look at the Valle Blanche because it'll be gone in 5 years with climate change which was depressing.