Italian Alps
This is the second article in the series about my Chamonix Valley Ski trip. Although we were staying in the French Alps, the first two days of snowboarding were spent at the Italian Alps resort named Courmayeur. A 25 minute shuttle ride had us through the 11km long Mont-Blanc tunnel, which connects the Italian and French sides. The exciting part was entering the tunnel on a perfectly nice day on the French side, only to emerge in Italy to find yourself in a snowstorm.
Upon arrival I immediately knew we were in Italy with the multi-lingual “Welcome” signs (even though this picture is showing the English & French words). The gondolas taking you up the mountain were standing room only and wow did they pack the people into those. I think they crammed about 75-100 people into a 10 foot by 10 foot space.
Up on the mountain, avalanche homing beacon testers were placed throughout the resort, and many skiers walked passed these testers to hear the accepting “beep” that let them know their beacon was fully functioning. Unfortunately, this didn’t do anything to calm my nerves, as I had no homing beacon and the avalanche danger was a modest 3 out of 5. Fortunately there were no problems, even though the snow was great. We made it up to the top piste that was open where we had powder up to our knees.
The most exciting part about the experience was going to lunch. We made reservations at a small Italian restaurant on the mountain that served fantastic Italian food. Between the two days there I sampled three types of pasta, sausages, pizza, and lasagna – everything was fantastic. The owner was there both days, shouting loudly at the wait staff from the seated section above.
