UKC

I've convinced two of my non-mountain savvy friends to visit me while I'm in Chamonix and I'm trying to decide what we should do.

Where would be best best to take beginners skiing? Is there a package we can get for two/three days which includes lifts, rental and maybe a lesson?
Is paragliding an option in winter?
Is there anywhere genuinely objectively safe that I could take them for a wee BC experience? Maybe snow-shoeing if the skiing doesn't go well.

Any recommendations for activities would be grand.

Thanks

In reply to frqnt:

There's easy skiing up the valley at Le Tour.

In reply to frqnt:

+1 for Le Tour. You could also try cross-country/nordic skiing in the valley. There are a couple routes to try.

In reply to frqnt:

I imagine paragliding might be an option - they do tandem trips in 3 Valleys, off the top on of one of the cable cars, wearing skis to land. Don't know if you're expected to have any skiing ability.......

In reply to frqnt:

Les Houches has some nice easy skiing up on the ridge and I think some simple snow shoeing tracks as well. You could also walk up the rail track a way to give a mountain-y aspect without getting too exposed.

Steve D

In reply to frqnt:

What you need is Hilary's Chamonix Mountain Adventures, published by Cicerone: http://books.google.fr/books/about/Chamonix_Mountain_Adventures.html?id=pLB...

In reply to frqnt:

Agree on Le Tour and Les Houches for beginners. Le Tour very wide and open, with well-prepared pistes, but not so great for food and drink on the hill; book a table early. Les Houches the most gentle of the 'mountain resorts' in the valley. And with some pretty charming restaurants, if you can find them... LH also has snow-shoeing tracks and the Mont-Blanc tramway. Oh, and you get a great view of the shiny new Gouter refuge... (well, it looks rather small, but very prominent once you spot it).

Genuinely objectively safe backcountry skiing...? Hmmmm... Well, , it took Les Houches a few days to bash the Plancerts red after heavy snowfall, so it started a bit like a 'back country' piste, until it got cut up... It's a long drag back, though, which true beginners might struggle with...