The Vallée Blanche from the Italian side, with a guide and a taxi through the tunnel

Courmayeur, Chamonix-Mont-Blanc

1. 7:15 am1

   Kit check and glacier gear with the guide in CourmayeurCourmayeur

   Harness, transceiver, shovel and probe are not optional and are usually rented here rather than at a ski shop. Take wider skis than your piste pair — the glacier is soft, crusted or tracked and never groomed. If the guide says the conditions are wrong, that is the answer; the route reschedules, it does not get argued with.

   9 min by train or taxi · 5.5 km
2. 8 am2

   Skyway Monte Bianco: Pontal to Pavillon to Punta HelbronnerCourmayeur

   The rotating cabins climb from 1,300 m to 3,466 m in two stages with a change at Pavillon du Mont Fréty. Book the first departure online days ahead — it is cheaper than the ticket office and, more importantly, the early slots sell out and a late start on the glacier is a bad start. The Italian approach is the civilised one: no knife-edge arête walk down from the Aiguille du Midi.

   13 min walk · 1.0 km
3. 8:45 am3

   Espresso at Rifugio Torino before roping upCourmayeur

   Last coffee, last toilet and last mobile signal for four hours. Drink water here too — 3,400 m dehydrates you faster than the skiing does.

4. 9:15 am4

   Vallée Blanche descent with a UIAGM guideCourmayeur

   Twenty-plus kilometres through crevasse fields and seracs — a guide is not a nicety, it is the only sane way down, and the price is per guide, not per head. A private guide from the Italian side runs around €590; with three or four in the party the per-person figure drops to roughly a third of that, so fill the rope. It is not steep, but it is long and unrelenting: if you cannot ski a red comfortably for an hour without stopping, do this next year.

5. 12:30 pm5

   Lunch at Refuge du Requin on the glacierChamonix-Mont-Blanc

   A hut in the middle of a glacier with a terrace over the icefall. Cash and patience — one kitchen, forty skiers, no rush. Your guide will call ahead on the radio if you want a table rather than a bench.

   9 min by train or taxi · 5.4 km
6. 2:30 pm6

   The steps and the Montenvers rack railway outChamonix-Mont-Blanc

   The glacier has retreated far enough that the day ends with several hundred metal steps up from the ice, carrying your skis, at the point where you are most tired. That is the hardest part of the whole route and nobody warns you. Then a red train down to Chamonix.

   8 min by train or taxi · 3.9 km
7. 3:30 pm7

   A beer in Chamonix while the taxi is arrangedChamonix-Mont-Blanc

   You have just skied from Italy to France, which is worth a sit-down. Do not linger past 16:45 — the tunnel queues at the end of the afternoon.

   16 min by train or taxi · 16 km
8. 5 pm8

   Private taxi back through the Mont Blanc tunnelCourmayeur

   This is the cost everybody forgets, and it is the difference between a €700 day and a €950 one: the tunnel toll alone is steep and a car for four is well over a hundred euros. Book it in the morning with a return time, not from a Chamonix pavement at five o'clock. A public bus exists and is far cheaper but runs infrequently and will not wait for a late descent.