{"id":1691,"date":"2015-01-22T11:10:56","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T10:10:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mountainpassions.com\/wordpress\/?p=1691"},"modified":"2021-01-21T16:33:52","modified_gmt":"2021-01-21T15:33:52","slug":"ski-chamonix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mountainpassions.com\/winter\/ski-resort-reviews\/alps\/ski-chamonix\/","title":{"rendered":"Chamonix Mont Blanc"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Le Br\u00e9vent \u2013 Chamonix\u2019s home ski terrain<\/h2>\n
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T<\/span>oday we\u2019re setting off to ski the Br\u00e9vent area, the closest high-altitude skiing to our apartment and to Chamonix itself, being located just above the town and accessible via the powerful 8\/10-seater Planpraz gondola lift. The last time we were here things were very different, with a memorably hairy ride up in old, cramped \u2018egg\u2019-style cabins, but back in 2009 the whole installation was upgraded. It\u2019s still an impressively steep haul, though, but faster and much smoother, after which we step out onto the mostly south-facing terrain at Plan Praz (1999m).<\/p>\n

From here advanced skiers can take a vertiginous cable-car ride up to Le Br\u00e9vent (2525m) for sensational views of the Aiguille du Midi and the massif du Mont-Blanc, plus a single black-graded scenic descent made even more interesting by having two of its intermediate sections dividing briefly into alternative routes. They reunite before joining either a green piste back to Plan Praz or an onward blue over to the Cornu sector. Snow permitting, you can then ski a black (Nants) all the way back to the floor of the valley or the base of the Planpraz gondola. <\/p>\n

For now we decide to pass on Le Br\u00e9vent\u2019s black terrain and instead explore some of the intermediate runs before the imminent arrival of this morning\u2019s Sunday skiers. Thanks to the previous night\u2019s copious snowfalls we float off silently on fresh powder, and lay tracks on Vioz and Blanchots, two blues which drop us neatly at the base of the Cornu chairlift (1814m). The high-speed six-seater serves three steep Red pistes, with the option of a detour on an even steeper Black (Bouquetins).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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