Making plans for the 2020/21 ski season

Thoughts and advice for planning your 2020/21 ski trip amougst the Covid-19 pandemic.

Monday 14th December 2020

Stunning conditions and weather out here in Chamonix at the moment. Plenty of fresh snow over the weekend with around 30cm of snow in the valley. Anyone who owns ski touring kit has been out using it, lots of people on the classic skinning tracks at Les Houches, Le Tour and Grand Montet as well as getting out into the higher hills, although the avalanche risk remains high up there.

The French prime minister has said that ski lifts at the resorts should be able to open around the 7th January if the health situation allows. It’s still not totally clear what will be required in terms of covid numbers for this to happen.

Local ski clubs can access a few lifts in Chamonix now, which is good. The cross country skiing is also in full swing.

Friday 11th December 2020

A round up of the latest developments with restrictions and openings. Not a massive amount of positive news for travellers I’m afraid!

France comes out of its lockdown on the 15th December. From then on there is a strict curfew between 8pm and 6am and anyone breaking this is liable for a 135€ fine. Exercise is banned during curfew too.

During the day there will be no restrictions, with the goverment reccommended maximum of six people in a gathering.

Travel within and out of France is permitted. For the moment the ski lifts remain shut, although the resorts are open for ski touring, snow shoeing and cross country skiing etc, as reported below. There will be a review of that situation soon I believe, although nothing is likely to change before mid January.

There are some further brexit/Covid related headaches for people travelling out of the UK, especially after the 1st January. Britons will be banned from entering the EU as at the time of writing the UK will not be on the list of safe countries. For a full explanation its worth readng this article from the Guardian.

The Foreign Office is still advising against all non essential travel so most Brits haven’t booked holidays. But it does complicate things for the new year. Lets hope this changes sooner rather than later.

Typically what with all the travel faff, we are having a great early season here in Chamonix with more snow due today and at the weekend. All putting down a good base for the rest of the season.

Sunday 6th December 2020

Fresh snow down to low levels here in the Chamonix valley. Many folk out ski touring at Le Tour, Les Houches and the nearby resorts of Saint Gervais & Megeve. There is more of a base now, which bodes well for the Ski touring over the next few weeks and Christmas. Even the mid level snow shoe routes will be good fun.

Talking of Megeve, take a look at this wolf sighting captured by the resort webcam a few days ago. Amazing to think there are wolves around in amougst all the villages and ski resorts.

Many local resorts have opened the cross country ski pistes with good conditions.

Switzerland have confirmed that their resorts will remain open through the Christmas period, although for “domestic” skiers from Switzerland itself. The neighbouring alpine countries continue to discourage skiers from crossing the border into Switlzerland to ski. France has said there will be random checks and quarantines for people crossing the border. I guess they need to say/do this to appease the French skiing industry which will be hit hard by the Christmas closures.

At the time of writing there is no quarantine or isolation for people arriving in France or Switzerland from the UK. And when returning the 14 day quarantine looks set to drop to five days with a negative test result.

Our spring ski touring season is looking busy, and we have many confirmed trips including some new ones such as the four day Monta Rosa trip here.

Saturday 28th November 2020

Whilst the lifts will be shut we can still enjoy winter sports this Christmas period including Ski Touring. We’re going to have to earn our turns for real!

See video from Le Dauphine below.

Thursday 26th Novemeber – ski resort opening – updated.

Well since writing this mornings update (below) and then going for a run we’ve had some confirmation on the resort openings this Christmas & New Year.

Ski resorts can open, but the ski lifts will remain shut.

This means we are game on for ski touring, sledging etc and we will wait until January for the lifts to reopen. A major blow for the ski industry but not unexpected.

You can read some more details (in English) on thelocal website here.

Thursday 26th November 2020

We’ve had some news here in France over the past few days relating to the easing of lockdown and the ski season ahead. You shoudl read this post along with previous update below.

The current “lockdown” should end on the 15th December (if the positive Covid cases continue to fall at their current rate). This means that access to the mountains should be possible from the 15th December.

The situation for the French ski resorts (at time of writing) still seems a little unclear. Macron suggested that the possibility of opening for the Christmas and New Year holidays seems impossible but that they will take a decision on that in the coming days. Most big ski travel companies have cancelled their December trips but we haven’t seen any press releases from the Chamonix lift company yet.

Bars and restaurants will remain closed until later in January. It seems like the classic ski lift based holidays won’t start until late January 2021.

France is also talking to Italy and the other alpine countries to coordinate opening together, probably in mid to late January. Whether that is practical remains to be seen.

In any case, we’ll be out ski touring no matter what the lifts do. Although to be honest, we could do with some snow first!

Tuesday 10th November 2020

Well what a year it’s been. If you followed our summer mountaineering updates you will have seen that we were out climbing and guiding a lot during the summer. Numbers were down a great deal compared with previous summer’s but there was plenty of guiding happening for us.

Interestingly French and Swiss guides were very busy with local clients. The “stay-cation” message meaning everyone finally got around to climbing the peak they had been dreaming about for so long, the lockdown provided the motivation and the uncertainty of international travel kept the French and Swiss climbers close to home.

So what’s going to happen this coming ski season?

At the time of writing France is on strict lockdown again and all early season ski resorts are shut. The same goes with Italy.

The Swiss resort of Verbier remains open at weekends and daily from 5th December.

Christmas skiing from international travellers seems a little unlikely but not impossible. France has not comitted to an exit from the lockdown just yet and it’s likely to be extended beyond the initial date of 6th December.

Mid season skiing and spring skiing should be good and the resorts are preparing for a winter season as normal.

There are a few lessons to be taken from our climbers who did make it out this summer. Many drove out from the UK rather than flying which was flexible.

Although Chamonix is our home base for alpine activities we operate in Italy and Switzerland which often had different rules, regulations and qurantine logistics with the UK. We swapped venues to make the best of the situation we found ourselves in on the day.

Our guests also made the most of the quarantine free travel and we had a flurry of activity as soon as the borders opened up again in July.

Cancellations and refunds due to Covid restrictions

You should read our terms and conditions which details relevent cancellation terms towards the bottom of that document.

Travel and rescue insurance

Many companies have provision for a postivie Covid test. You should check your policy when booking with us.

Any other questions?

Give us a shout if you have any questions. You can see our scheduled skiing trips here and we will be running more during the early season when the skiing opens up.