Happy New Year to all !!!
Looks like La Thuile/Courmayeur/La Roseire (6day San Bernardo Pass) plus 2 Mountain Collective days at Chamonix/Argentiere/Vallorcine and 2 extra days at Megeve will do it for this years winter Euro trip.
I was able to arrange on my return flight to leave from Geneva.
So Flying to MXP, bus to La Thuile, local bus to get me around La Thuile/Courmayeur, skis/lifts to get me to La Roseire, transfer to Chamonix (Mont Blanc tunnel), local bus/train to get me around Chamonix Valley, transfer to Megeve, on to Geneva ...
About Mountain Collective - included ticket is only valid for limited Chamonix ski pass (Brevent, Argentieres - no top and Vallorcine). I would have to buy extra ticket to ski Les Houches - this seems to be a good year to really experience this area. Good thing is that Mont Blanc Unlimited Pass is good for all areas ($150 for 2 days) - just in case...
Suggestions about hotels/places to eat/drink and any good sights and scenes are welcomed !
Well, if you can you really should go up Aiguill du Midi. Do the Vallee Blanche. To do that you need, you actually don't -but highly recommended, to get a guide. Just go to the guide office in town. Or you can book online with other groups. One can even go to Courmayeur with a guide. Did it one day and they just bused us over in a van, then at the end dropped us off where where you stay in Chamonix. No extra fee.
If one only has two days in Chamonix, Les Houches wouldn't be the place. Aiguille du midi and Les Grand Montets. You need the unlimited ticket. Weather can curtail the Midi lift and the top of Grand Montets can be in total fog so other areas might be worth checking out.
Don't really know restaurants, but a good realtively cheap and quick area on the main street, Avenue De L'Aguille du Midi is the crepe place.
On that street, Pain de Traditions is a good little bakery. Their coffee is from a machine, but it was quite good. Up the street, across the river is a fancier pastry bakery probably with better coffee. Aux Petits Gourmands .Same side of street. Has some pretty spectacular looking pastries large and small. They make a "Mont Blanc" cake.
La Poele, opposite side of street,( from Pain du Traditions) and also past the river, has great quick omlettes and crepes. A good relatively cheap dinner.
The Boot Lab, also called Sole,(I think) is a small shop just over the river but around behind the store fronts. That guy, (co owner?)used to post on epic as SmallZooKeeper. There you can experience the joys of boot fitting, all in another country. They're very english oriented so language is not an issue.
Chamonix is certainly the place for touring and climbing gear.
If you want to see what our planet is like, go up to the Vallee Blanche with a guide. If offerred the choice to go to the refuge, go, you can get soe hot driks up there. You'll need beacon, probe, crampons. All can be rented along with a backpack in town. A harness is a good idea because then you can rappell if the group is small enough and the guide wants to. Guides will have some harnesses but the group will have to be small I think for rapelling unless there's two guides.
If you want a very cheap hostel place to stay but your own room, let me know. I think it was 45 euros with optional breakfast. I believe they may have been renovating last summer so it could be more now.
I brought my own skis up to Vallee Blanche and the rappelling, ( at Brevent I think), and regretted it. We literally were walking over rocks with skis after the refuge.
Here, edging on rock with more to go. Oh, and after that next ridge you have to go down/traverse through rocks. Faling would be a mess and potentially very bad, without skis would be worse. And to think at the Guide office I said I didn't want anything crazy, making a 45 deg pitch sign with hand. Well then our group of 8 was cancelled due to wind. So, hanging out in the square in front of the lift I ran into the German woman and her friend. We called the guide office to arrange another guide. Turns out it wasthe same guide who was there. We waited about 45 min and then he decided it was ok, so the three of us got harnesses from him and went up.
Honestly, that day was the most scared I've been on skis. Amazing though, so beautiful up there! Simply incredible. And there's easier stuff one can do, where the guide isn't saying, "Here you don't fall, or we don't see you again..."
I would recommend, if you have it, a helmet etc mounted cam that can take hands free pictures. Because there's spots you cannot stop or have your hands on a camera. Like the initial ridge walk after the tram even. The guide will not be happy if you're trying to take a photo while roped up to him.
It's also "go, go, go!" Because we were trying to get done in a certain time frame, to go to another spot. A just Vallee Blanche trip may be different but guides like to keep moving to reduce risk.
This is after the rappel later that day, opposite side of valley from Aiguille du Midi. I think it was Brevent. It was that woman's 1st day on snow of the year! The steepness is constantly reinforced by staring down at the town. It ain't Alaska, just make the turn withut a lot of eergy at the end. Guide wanted us not to link turns there actually to reduce falling risk.