Mountain high in Chamonix

Peak: skiers are warned to beware of the dangerous off piste trail
10 April 2012

It is minus 18 degrees and the bitterly cold air is so thin up here that I am puffing breathlessly before we even begin.

"Rope up," instructs our French guide, Guillaume Roussel, leading us onto a narrow icy ridge with sheer drops on either side. "Try not to look down," he says, clipping on his crampons. "You hold the guide rope in one hand, skis in the other. Don't panic, OK?" Ahead of us lies the spectacular Vallee Blanche, a five-hour, 20-kilometre run that begins from the top of the highest cable car in Europe and is regarded by many as the greatest off-piste run that a competent intermediate skier can sensibly tackle.

I am here with my friend Jonathan Wilson, an architect, neither of us having gone off-piste before, but whereas Jonathan is an accomplished skier, I am about to discover that I'm not quite as competent as I'd imagined.

To start we take the telepherique from Chamonix up to Aiguille du Midi, which, at 3,842m, floats above the clouds like a spire between heaven and earth. From the top it feels like you can touch Mont Blanc, Europe's highest peak, and the panoramic views of France, Italy and Switzerland are simply the best in the Alps.

But the exhilaration is tinged with fear and our eyes are soon glued to our ski boots as we inch painstakingly down the steeply declining ridge. A bad slip here can be fatal and every season skiers plummet down these icy seracs to their death. Forty-five minutes later, having reached the base of the ridge, we snap on our skis and begin the Vallée Blanche proper - the gradual descent over virgin powder along the magnificent Geant (giant) glacier.

"Whatever you do, ski behind me and stay in my tracks," instructs Guillaume, explaining that crevasses are difficult to detect and that if he disappears into one we should save ourselves and stop in time. But it's harder to apply the brakes off-piste and soon I'm picking up speed and hurtling past him like a runaway train. Guillaume is not pleased, and later I will see why.

We'd had private lessons in the art of off-piste on the slopes above Chamonix the previous day - learning how to distribute our weight more evenly over both skis and to make sharp, quick stem turns - but applying these tips in thick snow is much more difficult than on neatly groomed slopes.

We settle into a rhythm - me falling over every 10 minutes, Jonathan and Guillaume waiting ahead for me to stop swearing and pick myself up, then we head off again. Approaching the halfway point is a sobering sight: a helicopter hovers down the valley 100m from us and lowers a doctor into a crevasse, where a skier has unwittingly fallen.

"It doesn't look good," says Guillaume. "We guides know not to ski in that part of the valley." Every year thousands of skiers attempt the Vallée Blanche - the best months being February to April because decent weather is vital - but each year about a dozen skiers fall into crevasses and die, most of them having ventured out without a guide. We push on. After two hours we stop for a carbo-loading lunch of macaroni cheese at the 2,516m Refuge de Requin, a restaurant so isolated that provisions have to be brought in by sledge. I ask Guillaume how are we doing, hoping for encouragement. "You are the lowest level skier who can make the Vallee Blanche without calling out the rescue helicopter," he says. "At least you are fit," he adds by way of Gallic charm.

The second half, though, turns out to be more to my liking. Indeed, for the next two hours, I'm in skiing heaven - whooping with delight as we whip along the bottom of a gently sloping glacier with magnificent views. By the end we both feel totally invigorated and take the charming 100-year-old Montenvers rack-and-pinion train, a veritable Thomas-the-Tank engine built to transport the very first mountaineers, back down through the larch forests, arriving 20 minutes later in Chamonix.

We are ready to soothe our weary limbs and head for the complimentary spa with a heated outdoor pool, sauna and a eucalyptus-infused steam room at our base, Les Aiglons Resort and Spa Hotel.

Dinner with chef David Cochereau's inventive dishes is one of the highlights of our four-day stay: I recommend his delicate "French classic Parmentier" shepherd's pie with foie gras and truffle - and the chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream is sublime.

But as we depart the next day, we're brought crashing down to earth by a local paper report on the incident we'd witnessed. "A snowboarder descending the mythical Vallee Blanche lost his life following a massive fall down a crevasse and died instantly," it says. "Two hours later a skier took a terrible fall under the Aiguille du Midi sliding 80 metres and suffering fatal injuries." I feel stunned to think that of the 900 people who attempted the Vallée Blanche on the day we did, two never returned home. The hotel receptionist says two deaths in one day is unlucky, but reflects that danger is part of the allure of the mountain.

Jonathan rates the experience "10 out of 10" and I am left with a thrilling sense of having survived one of the world's great one-day adventures. But also with a renewed respect for the mountain, and with the warning words of Guillaume ringing in my ears: "Always take a guide, and remember, the Vallée Blanche is great, but it's not for everyone."

DETAILS: VALLEE BLANCHE CHAMONIX Inghams has a week at the four-star Les Aiglons Resort and Spa Hotel from £912pp half-board including return flights from Gatwick/Stansted to Geneva and transfers.

inghams.co.uk The Skiing: Private guide for Vallée Blanche for a full day is £200. esfndb.com. Mont Blanc Unlimited ski pass from £223.

compagniedumontblanc.fr Six days ski and boot hire from £86 and can be pre-booked with Inghams.

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