Yesterday , 26 November 2023 the Flégère telepherique closed as planned. This is only a temporary closure. until 9 December 2023 when, snow conditions permitting, as part of the usual staged opening of all the Chamonix ski areas, the Flegere telepherique will open for the 2023/24 winter season.
Here are the dates for the staged opening of the all the ski areas in Chamonix valley.
The temporary closure provides the ski patrollers and lift mechanics with the time to prepare the pistes and to fit the chairs and gondolas to the lifts, do pre-season maintenance and bring them up to a satisfactory operational status.
The Flegere telepherique was open for 3 weeks 'pre-season'. No pistes and no lifts were open above the telepherique top station.
You might ask, what's the point of that?
It's for ski tourers, who use skis with a releasing back binding and seal skins fixed to the underside of their skis. They ski uphill. No joke! They call it 'skinning up'!
Yep, a whole new dimension for skinning up.
What next? The back binding is fixed to the ski, the skins are removed and they get a natural high by cruising through virgin powder on their way down the mountain.
Moksah moments!
So now you know why the Flegere telepherique opens early.
Until the Grands Montets opens, snow permitting, on 2 December 2023, the popular way to ski in Cham is by skinning up out of Le Tour to Charamillon and beyond. But the low snow, that has made this possible in recent weeks, has melted.
Skinning up out of Le Tour is not an option right now.
The good news is that we have snow forecast tonight and for much of tomorrow, a bit on Wednesday and more on Friday.
Lets hope that is enough for Les Grands Montets to open on Saturday.
Le Dauphiné assisted with this news item
