313: Chamonix Mont-Blanc | More Than a Ski Resort

Today we focus on one of the most famous resorts in the world – Chamonix Mont-Blanc.

Host Iain Martin talks with Chamonix locals to get behind what makes this resort so special, from history to high mountain, glaciers to guides.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this episode, including Bernadette Tsuda, Brad Carlsson, David Webster, Sam Haddad, Sasha Rayazantsev, Benoit Borrell, Sam Morton and Iona Halley, as well as Nathalie Tortora.

SHOW NOTES

Bernadette Tsuda is a heritage guide in Chamonix
William Windham and Richard Pococke ‘discover’ the Mer de Glace in 1741 (2:00)
The statue of de Saussure and Jaques Balmat (5:00)
The statue of Michel Paccard (7:40)
The mural at Place des Alpes (12:00)
Marie Paradis was the first woman to summit Mt Blanc in 1808 (12:30)
How to qualify as a mountain guide, with Brad Carlsson (17:30)
ENSA is the École Nationale de Ski et d'Alpinisme (19:00)
How to become a member of the Compagnie des Guides de Chamonix (21:30)
The ski areas (24:00)
The Aiguille du Midi (27:00)
Changes to the Vallee Blanche over the years, with David Webster (29:30)
Dangers of crevasses, with Sam Haddad (31:00)
The kit you need for glacier skiing, with Brad Carlsson (34:00)
The Haute Route is a hut-to-hut ski touring route from Chamonix-Zermatt (37:00)
The effects of climate change on the Vallee Blanche route (41:00)
Visit the Glacorium (41:15)
The impact of global warming on guides (41:45)
The new Grands Montets lift, with Benoit Borrell (46:00)
The Tour de Mont Blanc, with Sam Morton (49:30)
Sam runs the Adventure Running Company (50:00)
Changes in Chamonix from season workers to ‘daytrippers (51:00)
Iona Hally runs Mountain Massage (53:00)
Chambre Neuf and Elevation are both popular with locals (54:00

FEEDBACK

There are over 300 episodes of The Ski Podcast to catch up with – all available at theskipodcast.com. Just have a search around the tags and categories and you’re bound to find something you’ll find something of interest.

If you enjoyed this episode, or if you have any comments, please let me know. You can do that by leaving a comment on Spotify, Instagram or Facebook – or drop me an email to theskipodcast@gmail.com. We’re also on WhatsApp.

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As well as this special episode, The Ski Podcast is going to run a series of ‘Chamonix Stories’, which will feature extended versions of some of the conversations featured here, plus others that I wasn’t able to include here.

Look out for the first of those – a chat with Chamonix-based brand Zag Skis - coming up next week.