Chamonix: the back story

About Chamonix: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Ski Resorts Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Chamonix was a valley of farmers with long, hard winters until two Englishmen walked up to a glacier in 1741 and wrote home about it. Within half a century Mont Blanc had been climbed, and the people of Chamonix had become guides and hoteliers to the world.

A farming valley

In the 18th century Chamonix lived from farming, in spite of a climate that made every harvest hard won. Then, in 1741, two Englishmen, William Windham and Richard Pococke, explored the valley and reached the Glacier des Bois. Struck by the great expanse of ice, they gave it the name it has kept ever since, the Mer de Glace, and when they wrote about their journey in the London literary journals, travellers began to come.

The race for Mont Blanc

In 1760 Horace Bénédict de Saussure, a Genevan scientist, offered a reward to the first person to reach the summit of Mont Blanc. On 8 August 1786 two men of Chamonix, Jacques Balmat and Michel Paccard, made the first ascent; a year later Saussure himself stood on the top, with Balmat’s help. Their monument stands in the centre of town.

Farmers became guides and hoteliers, at least for part of the year.

Guides and hoteliers

The expeditions could only happen in summer, and local farmers turned guide and hotelier for part of the year. The valley’s Belle Époque and Art Deco façades date from this age of grand hotels: the Hôtel Mont-Blanc was built in 1849, and the Carrier family has run what is now Le Hameau Albert 1er since 1903.

Winter sports

Chamonix hosted the first Olympic Winter Games in 1924, and skiing slowly joined climbing as the valley’s great passion. Today five ski areas, from Les Houches to Balme above Le Tour, stretch from 1,035 m to 3,300 m, with beginner slopes such as Le Savoy and Les Planards right in town.

Up to the high mountains

For more than 60 years the Aiguille du Midi cable car has carried visitors from the town centre to 3,842 m in about 20 minutes, to a 360-degree view of the French, Swiss and Italian Alps and the glass box of Le Pas dans le Vide, above a 1,000-metre drop. The rack railway to Montenvers, at 1,913 m, looks over the Mer de Glace towards the Drus and the Grandes Jorasses.

The new Grands Montets

Since a fire in 2018, the summit of the Grands Montets has had no lift. For Christmas 2026 a new 10-person gondola links Argentière with Lognan, with a new base hall and a brasserie; the second phase, a 3S cable car from Lognan to the summit at more than 3,000 m, is scheduled for the winter of 2027–28.

Our advice: book the Aiguille du Midi online and go early on a clear morning, with warm clothes and sunglasses; children under three are not allowed up. Leave the Vallée Blanche to the day you have a qualified mountain guide.

Chamonix through the years

Dates from the Chamonix-Mont-Blanc tourist office (chamonix.com), read October 2026.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Chamonix: the back story before you go.