Europe's longest ski run - The Vallée Blanche

The Vallée Blanche begins at the highest point of the Aiguille du Midi Cable Car and ends at either the Montenvers train station, or (snow conditions allowing) in Chamonix itself.

A 17 to 22km long excursion - with 2800m of vertical - through some of the most beautiful scenery on Earth, the Vallée Blanche is a must do for every skier. 

Starting from the top of the Aiguille du Midi - 3842m above sea level, your guide will equip you with all the safety gear you’ll need for the day.  As the Vallee Blanche is glacial skiing, you’ll need to wear a harness to allow you to be rescued in the rare case of a crevasse fall. You’ll also need to wear an avalanche transceiver. 

Once you have all your gear it’s time to walk down the arete - the knife-edged ridge that drops all the way down to Chamonix on one side.  Many people find this to be the most difficult bit of the whole run!

After you get down the arete, the skiing begins!  For several hours you’ll wind your way down nearly 3 vertical kilometres past crevasses, and underneath sparkling blue seracs.  Don’t worry too much about your skiing ability, if you’re a competent red run skier you should be fine, just keep in mind that if it’s recently snowed you’ll probably need to be comfortable skiing in powder.

Stay Safe With A Qualified Mountain Guide

Make sure you hire your own guide if you don’t already know the way down.  Following other guided groups is not only rude, but potentially dangerous as they may be taking a much more difficult route than the standard run!

If you decide to eat lunch on the way down, you can either pack your own or you can stop at the Requin refuge - just don’t forget to bring cash as they don’t have a card machine! If you don't want to eat in the middle of your run there is a cafe at the Aiguille du Midi and another at the Montenvers train station.

Once at the bottom of the run you will have to hike up for about half an hour to get back to Chamonix.  You can either take the stairs up to the Montveners train station or - if the snow cover is really good - you can hike up the ridge and ski all the way back down into Chamonix itself!

This guest post is brought by Ski Bro - the home of Ski Lessons