Aspire to be an alpinist? Head to Chamonix to master high-altitude mountaineering
“Lean back and trust the rope,” says Guillaume, my wavy-haired French alpine guide. I’m reluctantly abseiling over the edge of an icy cliff, somewhere deep within Mer de Glace , France’s longest glacier. I kick the spiky tips of my crampons into the ice wall, as a bitter wind bites through the sunshine.
I’m in Chamonix, in the shadow of mighty Mont Blanc, for the four-day Arc’teryx Alpine Academy. My goal? To taste what it feels like to be a bona fide alpinist, venturing over glaciers and up rocky peaks in Europe’s grandest mountain range. I have two decades of hill experience, but only as a hiker. I know nothing of ropes and carabiners. Crampons and ice axes are alien to me, and I’m more accustomed to rolling, grassy hills than crevasse-ridden glaciers.
My boots crunch into the snow at the cliff’s base, and Guillaume whoops to congratulate me. His weathered face — battle-scarred from a lifetime of high-mountain exploits — belies a youthful enthusiasm. “Time to ascend now, you’ll be fine,” he shouts, leaving me no time for the fear to crystallise. I jab my crampons into the near-perpendicular ice, wield my axes frantically and nervously climb.
Away from the ice, Chamonix is a place of glorious contrasts: one minute you’re running through the hills into town, sweaty and dishevelled; the next you’re sipping melapeño cocktails in swanky Swedish-Asian fusion restaurant Mumma. By day, you’re a regular tourist soaring skyward to 12,605ft on the Aiguille du Midi cable-car; by night, you’re vibing to legendary DJ Gilles Peterson’s set from the Planpraz pop-up stage, 6,565ft above sea level.
The academy crowd — commonly found at the festival village in the Place du Triangle de l’Amitié piazza — is similarly diverse. You’ll meet athletic European Millennials wearing multicoloured sunglasses, grey-haired US retirees with epic adventure tales from their ’70s heydays, and everyone else in between — including eager-to-learn alpine virgins like myself.
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