My first time skiing in Chamonix was back in 1997. I will never forget that day, because it was a kind of dream come true for me. It was so staggering to finally be there, after years of dreaming. I had pretty high expectations and I never got disappointed. It truly was my dream come true.

I was a newbie in the Alps and I wanted to join the “club” of backcountry skiers. I was so keen on getting to the mountains but I was a bit afraid. I had a problem. I did not know skiers in Chamonix and I was smart enough to understand that I cannot go to the mountains alone. Additionally I had no idea where are the mountain faces suitable for my skills. I was pretty good at skiing but certainly I was not ready to go directly to 55 degrees faces. I needed two things, friends and information of the off-piste routes. I needed to network and I needed books and maps.

My first days as a backcountry skier in Chamonix

The first problem one was pretty easy to overcome. I knew a couple of guys down there, I met them in Helsinki a couple of months earlier. I went drinking beer with the guys. Yes, that’s the way we Finns get along :). Dudes introduced me with a couple of more who again introduced me with some other people. Pretty quickly I knew some 15 good skiers who had more experience of the Alps than I had. Next I went skiing with these dudes. We started with lift-skiing, because guys clearly wanted to see if I am able to survive in the mountains. That makes sense.

Pretty soon I was on my way to my first off-piste route in Chamonix, which was Couloir des Cosmiques, a 900 meters couloir behind L’Aguille du Midi in 3700 meters altitude. It was fantastic start. You know.. I just can’t describe how big adventure it was for me. There are no words enough. It was my first time in the mountains which I had been dreaming of since I was a teenager skiing super-G at my home hill. It was a great day for sure.

I started thinking that this is not safe enough. We are all Finns and we are not very experienced in the mountains. We had no money for hiring a guide so we needed to survive on our own. We needed to find more experienced skiers. And we did find. We started skiing with guys who had been there for several seasons and who knew experienced local skiers. Anyhow, I wanted something more, a book. I am a “reader”, that’s my way to develop my understanding on something. One of the experienced guys recommended “Ski de randonnée : Haute-Savoie - Mont-Blanc” written by François Labande. I walked to a book shop and quickly found it. It was exactly what I needed. A definative guide for skiing the backcountries in Chamonix. It included probably every single off-piste around the massive of Mont Blanc with detailed descriptions of numerous off-pistes, estimation of the difficulty, approaching instructions, pictures and a small maps. It was exactly what I needed. That book was a great help for me and my buddies. I carried that book in the mountains and we used to read it in the afternoons while developing a plan for the next day. We never went to any off-piste before reading through what is said about it in the book.

Ski de randonnée : Haute-Savoie - Mont-Blanc: The most important book for Chamonix backcountry skiers

My book is from 1997 and I have it here on my table right now. It is already old but I save it because I made a lot of notes of my skiing on those days. I probably need to buy the latest version before the next skiing tip to Chamonix. Notice that this book is written in French! It is the only downside I would say. I don’t speak French but I understand it just a little. I used to read this book with a dictionary but I was never able to understand it 100%. Anyhow, I understood enough to feel safe to discover new off-piste routes.

If you ever plan to ski the backcountries in Chamonix, I strongly recommend you to buy this book, even though it is written in French. It is the best book I have found for backcountry skiing in Chamonix. Check it out and order it if you find it helpful for your skiing trip to Chamonix.