Chamonix/Courmayeur 2/20-23/18

Added Day 2 in Italy on the first page...

Day 3 we decided to go back to Brévent-Flégère, since I had skied there on the first day, I scoped out how to best work through the area to pick a route my wife would be able to ski.  She def pushed it a bit today which was cool, as she usually stays away from the blacks at Whiteface, we were skiing things here that were as steep or steeper than Skyward, red pistes as they call them here for medium difficulty.

Early morning gondola ride up to the Brévent cable car station

Brévent cable car take you up to this point upper photo...will be back here to finish out the day.  Black pistes only off this point.  Had a plan to work our way to Flégère for the morning.

Working our way over

Looking back on Brévent

Above the cloudy weather in town

You can see the skin track in the distance. Right off a mid mountain lift.

Wife getting ready to push her abilities on the red pistes that would be a Whiteface level black

Whuuuuduup red piste!

Going for it! (No choice lol, only way back to Brévent!)


Nailed it....no fall!

Looking back on the run from the cable car to Brévent. "I did THAT?!"-wife (Still won't ride Skyward! )

Over to Brévent cable car to close out the day

The view down from the upper station of Brévent.  The pic does not show the steepness of this, but it's crazy steep.  You can ski this all the way from up here through the off-piste gate, all the way into town.

Upper terminal restaurant and off-piste area



She took cable car back down after some pics, as it was black run only from here


Final descent of the trip




And that's it! Can't wait to go back to Europe to ski again.  It was such a great experience...wish I had more time but can't complain about the excellent stretch of weather and conditions we had in this short stay!

raisingarizona wrote

there is a ton of fun and playful freeride terrain there that doesn't have such high consequences.

ADmiKe wrote

Yes there was no shortage of very mild in-bounds "off-piste".

This ^^ is the #1 reason I go to the Alps. So much low-angle-pow offpiste that you can always find a clean line, no pressure, no waiting for rope drops -- places like Snowbird/Alta where you have dozens of people breathing down your neck on a traverse? No thanks.

Excellent pix and story about getting your SO to try steeper terrain. Looks like you and I are the only NYSBers to cross the pond this season.

What's the marking scheme in Europe?  Green-Blue-Black-Red?  Is it consistent from one resort or country to another?  I imagine the level of difficulty is similar to N. America.....

U.S. Green = Euro Blue
U.S. Blue = Euro Red
U.S. Black = Euro Black

Same as in North America, there's the qualifier "these trail ratings are relative to the ski area, not necessarily to other ski areas" -- i.e. a black in Chamonix, Val d'Isere, Verbier, or St. Anton may be more difficult than a black at a more family-oriented place. Comparing them to U.S. terrain, Mike mentioned above that some of the reds he was skiing (which should be equivalent to blues or double blues in the U.S.) were as tough/tougher than blacks at Whiteface. Thus, your mileage may vary.

It’s all relative to the ski area as James mentioned. Not that all the reds we found were “Whiteface’s blacks” but they definitely erred towards the steeper than many blues in the US side.  This is more in reference to the viewpoint of an intermediate rider like my wife, who would tend to think things are more difficult than someone like myself would.

In the case of the trail in my report, red, and even though the pics don’t show steepness well, It was for sure Mt. Run/Skyward(not headwall) steepness.