TravBlog: Boarding in the French Alps

I never thought I'd be cool enough to say that I got to board in the French Alps, but here I am. A yet another amazing perk of living in Europe is the proximity to one of the best skiing areas in the world.
Our destination - the ski resort tow of Chamonix, or the village of Le Praz (where we stayed) to be exact.
The gang: Vi, Van, Steve, Anna and Mark and I, reunited in the snowy mountains after our time together in the desert sands of Morocco.

Chamonix is an amazing place for both skiers and boarders - you have access to 8 different mountain ranges in 3 countries: France, Italy and Switzerland all within a 30 min drive, great apres ski, delicious cheesy, meaty and croissanty French food, and some of the most spectacular mountain sceneries in the world...oh, and you get Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps too, for those brave/good enough to try it.

I have Chamonix to thank for some of the best runs of my life. On our 2nd day there, we took a long and picturesque trail from France into Switzerland (where we had lunch and dutifully returned to our French base), boarding along a narrow path with the views of the mountains and cloud covered valley below us, followed by a run through a forest clearing. I fully had to stop at least 3 times to look around and 'have a moment'.

Not going to lie, the Alps kicked my butt quite a few times...especially on the icy patches, but the 2 big bruises were definitely worth the experience and the practice that I got to have. Mark and Van were good (and lucky) enough to goo all the way to the top of Mont Blanc and board down. They then proclaimed at the bottom that it was the best run of their life :D Luckily, they also had an observation platform for all of us novices on top of Mont Blanc, so one can still go up there to see the spectacular scenery. We got to see an avalanche as part of watching our spectacular scenery! It was pretty badass! I'm still quite sure that Anna set it off by screaming at Van or Steve hehe.

I can't wait to get better and go back already. It took us 3 days to do 2.5 out of 8 areas, so there's still plenty to see and board there :) Here is our experience in pictures:

Bottom of the chair lift...that's the town below us and under the clouds!