Chamonix Beta
Information we could have used beforehand.
Transportation from Geneva
The absolute best way to get from Geneva to Chamonix is to go to chamexpress.com and spend 25 euro on a van ride directly to where you want to go. They speak english, and you can schedule a pickup time and place online.
The train is an absolute and total clusterfuck, with transfers by foot, tram, bus, broken fare machines that only take swiss frank coins, and pissy conductors that only take euros. AVOID at all costs.
The bus is only marginally better than the train.. it only runs twice a day around 8 and 4, costs 35 euro, and makes tons of stops along the way.
The Aiguille du Midi Station
It’s 40 euros for a telepherique ticket that takes up up then back down (on the same date or later), 60 to get to the Torino hut (Italy side) and back and 32 for the “Alpinist Pass” which takes you halfway up (so you can climb a route on the north face of the Midi) then back down from the top. The first lift up in the morning is at about 7 or 8, and the last one down is at 5:30.
Cosmiques Hut Info
The Cosmiques hut costs 32 euro per night which includes breakfast (50 if you want dinner too). It’s easy to cook dinner outside on the porch and melt snow to save money… if you really want to save money, bivying downhill from the hut seems to be allowed. There were usually about 5-6 tents set up down there.
Cosmique hut breakfast consists of: a big bowl of coffee (or hot chocolate), bread butter and jam, cereal and granola, and infinite orange juice (hydrate for free! because water is 5 euros per 1.5 liters!). Another important note: .75 liters of wine is 13 euros.
The hut has easy access to: the Cosmiquess Arete, the south face of the Midi, the Triangle du Tacul, east face of Tacul (800m ice routes).
Call from town and reserve a bed (buy a phone card from a shop and use pay phones all over town).
City Beta
Coffee: is super expensive in France! like 3.50 euros at a cafe. That’s $4.94 as of right now. At McDonald’s it’s 1.80, at a bakery near the Midi Station it’s 80 cents at a machine, but it tastes pretty good. At Mojos sandwich shop it’s 2.50.
Internet: free wifi at McDonald’s and at a bar by the Les Arolles campground. There’s an internet cafe with 6 computers at Mojos sandwich shop which charges 10 cents/minute, on the honor system.
Food: There are a couple of sandwich/burger shops in town ~ 5 euros. Chambre 9 by the train station has 9 euro awesome tortellini, and 10 euro beer or wine pitchers.
The mountain guide office is by the church and open from 9:15 AM – noon, then from 3 – 6:15 or so. You can read guidebooks and photocopy them for 20 cents. There’s a huge diorama of the Mt. Blanc Massif which is good for visualizing routes. You can ask them about conditions and the’ll tell you if your plan is insane/stupid or not. The weather is posted outside every day with a 3 day outlook. Also there are ledgers inside for partner finding and route beta/conditions.
Gear: there are tons of shops with everything. The Technique Extreme (also known as the Discotheque Extreme) has super cheap prices (maybe stuff is fake?), but it’s close to camp and the Midi station.
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Word. For rainy days there’s also an awesome boulder down by the river, can’t miss it.
some further beta (i lived in les praz for three months in Camping Mer de Glace during may-july 2008)…
speak of the devil! Camping Mer De Glace is located just up valley and offers awesome! camping in the trees below the Dru right by Snells Field and the legendary boulder for a fair price (about 12 euro/day) which includes 24hr access to internet computers, covered cooking area, 1/0 hot showers with all hours access, a train pass for the whole valley (bus included), will order bread and other items for you for delivery the following morning, a coffee machine with really good coffees for 1.25 euro, and two days a week the pizza guy will come and make you custom pizzas.
For shopping, once you have a train pass, it is totally worth your while to shop around for good food prices. Meat may be a better price in Chamonix but veggies can be better priced in Argentiere. Les Houches had the best overall prices, and I would even take the train to Lausanne to get the chronic chocolate and other random goodies. Search it out, sales are random but do happen. Get bread earlier for more selection, my favorite place was in the Casino below the Alpin hotel by the river.
If you plan to ride the telepherique more than 5 times, buy a pass. OR you can be super dirtbag and accost tourists midday for their passes (which work all day up and down) to score a late day ride up. You can sleep in the upper station if need be but the bathrooms have the heater and you better love ammonia in that case. often we would take the last box up and bivy at the basin below the south face (with frying pan, laptop computer for movies, and boombox) this gives you the whole day to watch weather forecasts and reality, prepare supplies and mental fitness, and is pretty fun!
Beware of the chamonix monsoon, which will ground you for days but change the face of the mountains once the clouds clear…train by running the trails on the north side of the valley.
Do not trust the extended forecasts too much, HUGE mountains boost the chaos factor quite a bit…learn to watch the clouds and winds…the ECMWF is the local european weather model but also use the University of Utah GFS forecasts for what you can…
don’t let the french cut you in line, they will try and they will back down if you get in their face about it
33 beer is cheap and awesome, its downstairs at the main casino
Visit the church before and after every trip to the mountains, local custom will explain this.
If you stay at any camping, don’t hesitate to bug departing folks for their unused supplies, you may end up with some really tasty treats or just some extra pasta or eggs.
Mer de Glace has blow dryers in the bathroom which work great to dry boots, gloves, etc. Wait till late and have at it!
Technique extreme ‘had’ the best prices on white gas and has tons of silly clothing if you want to boost your ascent style.
finally (At least for now) you can browse the many coffee table books in the local bookstores for photos of notable mountains which can be surprisingly helpful in improving perspectives of potential routes.
Hope this helps!
Awesome, thanks for the beta dude! Good idea on getting extra passes from tourists in the afternoon.
About the telepherique pass, I didn’t buy one because it’s simply more flexible not to, and the savings didn’t seem to be that substantial. For example going up one day and coming down the next will cost you 2 days of pass use, while that is only 1 single ticket.
Basically, it’s super expensive to go to Chamonix however you slice it. You gotta pay to play.
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