Travel Guide: Chamonix
Key Beta, Google Pins, Referral Links & More...
This April was my first trip to Chamonix, and after 17 days of climbing, skiing, and spending way too much time eating delicious baked goods, I have committed to coming back for a full month next year. So yeah, it was that good.
During my trip, I dropped Google Maps pins on the good stuff, figured out the shuttle situation from Geneva, and got the beta on alpine skiing and climbing using the amazing lift system. Do I wish everywhere in the world had access like Chamonix? Well, no, but it was pretty amazing if you know what you’re getting into and set expectations appropriately, which is my aim for this article. Other than that, you can jump around to any of the “KEY BETA” sections for things I thought were particularly useful. These sections sandwich all the pretty photos. Thanks to Nik, John and the Fuji for those.
On that note, this article will be pay-walled somewhere below, and in the future, any training beta, travel beta, etc., will be as well. Other, more existential pieces on mediation, God, life, and climbing will remain free—PSAs for the soul, you might say. So without further ado, here we go.
My trip was booked (tickets & lodging) by September 2024, six months prior.
Flights to Geneva: Roundtrip (RT) from Seattle ($575), later changed to Las Vegas ($750)
Lodging: Airbnb sleeps 4 - 6, 15 Days ($1700)
There were a couple of unknowns for me in preparing for this trip.
1. The lift situation was a major one; the Midi operates on its own private platform and has a steep fee of $70-$90 USD, depending on if you have an IKON Pass discount or what type of ride you would like (one-way or RT).
2. Without a rental car, navigating to housing in Chamonix from Geneva and/in addition to around Chamonix proper for groceries/nightlife/climbing/etc.
3. What conditions would be like during our April climbing window, would skiing be out, or would there be ice, and how much mixed climbing?
I decided to just house all of my financials under the Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR) credit card since I bought the tickets with that card, and that would allow me to have a good track of overall cost and expenses as well as file insurance or travel-related claims on the CSR. More on this card later (you’ll also probably want one…)
KEY BETA (Lift Access): The Ikon Pass (both variants) paid off very well in reducing the overall cost of the trip, with 5 free days included in the base pass, accessing the 5 surrounding ikon resorts was easy. It made skiing a nice free backup on days the lifts shut down or we weren’t climbing due to weather. It also gives something like 10-20% off each MIDI ticket. Buy it.
KEY BETA (Airport Shuttle): $50 EUR with Mountain Drop Off will get you from Geneva International Airport to any local address in Chamonix. Their station is right after luggage claim in Geneva and will ease your suffering without you hauling 2 checked bags and a ski bag around to/from the bus stations. Worth it to me. They also have an office in downtown Chamonix to pay/schedule your return journey with ease.
Be prepared to be jet lagged. I honestly didn’t worry about this aspect too much, but from here on out on future international trips, I will work it into my calendar. I lost realistically like 2 full days due to this, the first one I slept until something like 4 pm the next day and the following day something about the jet lag made me very anxious in the alpine enviroment above the Grand Montet lifts climbing with John I threw in the towel after the first or second pitch and was hard on myself because of it. Looking back, I realized my body just wasn’t ready to be out there.
Intuition in the mountains is everything.
After that day, it was really off to the races for our climbing, but before I get into that, a little bit about living in Chamonix proper (Airbnb or not). Our Airbnb was located across from the Olympic ski headquarters, which was cool, and within 3 blocks we had groceries, restaurants, and a bus stop right outside the door. I would say generally that Chamonix is a very walkable town; it might take you some time, but you’re probably there to climb or ski, so your legs need the active recovery anyway, right?
I was surprised to find that, compared to the cost of food and living in Washington or California, Chamonix, France, was not that expensive. Espresso and coffees for under $2-3, amazing breads and wines for almost nothing, and eating out, coming in the most expensive, you’d expect to spend $15-30 on entrees. Groceries, on the other hand, were quite inexpensive, and the produce seemed to be of much higher quality than the standards for produce at general stores in the US. We probably only ate out 6-8 times the whole trip, took advantage of weekly specials (check the Google map below), and proceeded to make most of our meals at the Airbnb.
KEY BETA (Transportation): All public transit buses around town are actually free. Everywhere you look, you will still see rates/ways to pay, but no one asks for money, so it’s probably safe to assume all buses around Chamonix (to local ski resorts and surrounding towns) are free. We did still have to pay for the train ride while we were there, but all of the buses cost nothing.
KEY BETA (Google Pins): Here is a compiled list of good restaurants, recommendations, points of interest, and/or other useful information (in the notes section) for tourist-ing and climbing throughout the city itself. Reach out if you want to add to the LIST or modify in anyway.
After all the extras (food, groceries, drinks, and lifts) I spent about $800 during my 2.5 weeks in Chamonix. I didn’t feel as though I was holding back too much at all and felt like I had a good balance of letting loose and remaining reasonable (besides all those fucking chocolate croissants, but that’s fine, who's counting?)
The climbing was absolutely incredible during the trip, golden bulletproof granite (mostly), and really to have access to the lifts is such a unique experience for us North American-ers that I think at least a single trip to Chamonix is worth it for any mountain enthusiasts.
For this trip, we ended up bringing the quiver of gear. I got it down to 2 checked bags and a ski bag. Quite a lot, but we brought everything for every type of climbing and skiing (ice screws, ice axes, ski boots, 2 pairs of mountain boots, etc, etc) and every combination therein just because we didn’t have good on-the-ground intel. We also decided for this trip that we wouldn’t commit to any overnights (races back to the midi before it closed were fun). This would allow us to bring even less gear overall but also reduce the immense number of climbing and skiing objectives to everything within a radius to return to Chamonix each night. I think this works well for anyone going over there for a sampling/beta mission rather than for anything specific.
KEY BETA (Airport Lounges): If you fly enough, airport lounges are 1000% worth it and every top-tier credit card gives access to them; it’s just the individual lounge networks/airports that vary between the cards. The above Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR) is on the Priority Pass (PP) network and the AMEX Platinum is on additional PP networks as well as its own high-class “Centurion” Lounges. If you have an airline you use all the time, I’d check into their specific offerings (Delta go AMEX). If you don’t I would recommend starting with the CSR…
KEY BETA (Points & Travel Credits): Both the AMEX and CSR have their own incentives here. The quick and dirty is that they will both get you Global Entry, TSA Pre-check, CLEAR, etc. Each will give you a rideshare rebate, and both give you almost $300 a year in travel credits. I swear this is probably the last credit card blurb, so if you want your extra sign-up bonus points, click these. AMEX | CSR (and no, they aren’t sponsoring this post, the perks are just that good.)
Chamonix is a different kind of alpine climbing, so I think setting expectations here is a bit appropriate. Or in another way, for me, Chamonix was a very specific type of alpine climbing trip. It was unequivocally NOT an expedition.
In the Summer of 2024, as I started to ignite the spark of international travel with a thought problem about time and life (see “L’appel du Vide”) I had a few boxes left to check on my road to becoming an “Alpinist” and ultimately my dream trip of going to the Karakoram (Summer 2026 anyone?). Patagonia and Chamonix were on the page, staring me in the face. As most of you already know, as a climber, these are two very different locations, though the climbing is very much the same, steep granite, glacial protected, and unknown conditions. One is remote and expeditionary, where you may get 1 to 2 tries a month for something huge due to weather and circumstances (Patagonia), and the other is much more flexible in its access, closer to reality, and offers more opportunities to try a lot of different things (Chamonix). All of these factors, plus my first international climbing trip with John (he had been to Cham in 2024), drew me to the day mission style alpine climbing trip in Chamonix.
With access comes populace.
Chamonix is no different. Make no mistake, you can get into big terrain quickly, but you are not in any sense remote. Paragliders and helicopters are constant on the skylines. For me, it was inspiring, but also, I can see if you had expectations of not dealing with crowds in these “wild” places, you would be sorely mistaken. These wild places in Europe are not in any sense the same as the wild places in British Columbia, Alaska ot the lower 48. It feels much more like a gorgeous adventure theme park over a precious and sacred locale of Mother Earth. I think this comes down to a major difference in cultures and philosophies at the core level, but we won’t get into that now. Mostly, I just want to say don’t go to Chamonix for the wilderness. Go for the access and with that come the people, and here some might be turned off by the lift system, particularly with the Aiguille Du Midi or the Midi for short. For getting your lift ski/climbing access secured each day, you have really two options.
You can go online and prepay for a day pass and a time slot on the Midi website.
You can show up early each day 6:30-7:30 a,m depending on the day, and stand in line.
I think either way has its pros and cons, depending on what pass you purchase or if you purchase a Midi-specific pass, which they also sell (For those without the IKON this might be a good choice for your money). We opted for just showing up between 6:30 and 7:00 am each day and were first or second every time.
KEY BETA (Mornings at the Midi): Arrive earlier than you think to secure your spot. It goes from zero to HERO here real fast with the lines and if you are there early (which we always were) you can send one person a half a block away to buy more espresso and baked goods for your big adventure.
KEY BETA (Closing Time): Supposedly, it’s a badge of honor to spend a night in the heated bathrooms at the Aiguille Du Midi’s top station; we missed our chance by about 30 seconds one day; the party behind us got theirs. The last lift goes down at 4:00 pm. Don’t miss it.
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