Braving the spires of Chamonix

Why had I not felt this awe during my group's warmup trip to a nearby Swiss ski area the previous week? Why, after all these years as an advanced skier, had a mass of mountains in bright sunlight frightened me just a little?

About 20 of us -- some friends, some not -- were on a 10-day Alpine package tour that had begun at Geneva's airport. Fewer Americans seem to be heading for the Alps these days -- the exchange rate, the distance, the occasionally questionable weather and the political overtones since the Iraq war are all conspiring to make us think twice before booking such a ski trip. Besides, nothing beats North American snow. So I had almost forgotten Europe, returning to the Rockies or Sierra instead.

The first order of business was to find our rooms in the big Hotel Alpina, close to the center of Chamonix, then hustle down to its basement to rent a pair of skis. As I surveyed the Alpina's small room and single beds, I realized that this would be not so much culture shock as culture orienteering, a bit more complicated than translating euros into dollars. (The most attractive hotel I found was the deluxe Hameau Albert 1er, set in a lovely park, www.hameaualbert.fr.)

Dragons and witches

A fierce history hangs over Chamonix, with its tales of dragons, St. Bernards and maniacal British climbers. The valley, once considered extremely cold, inhospitable and hard to reach, is hemmed in by immense, slow-moving glaciers, rivers of ice that slice through chinks in the walls of hills. Mt. Blanc, at 15,771 feet the highest mountain in Western Europe, dominates the region.

Until the 18th century, Chamonix was inhabited only by a small population of farmers. Europeans believed that witches lay in wait for outsiders and that dragons lurked in Alpine caves.

Not until the middle of the 18th century did visitors identify this shivery world as a destination worthy of the hardships endured to reach it. A pair of British tourists paved the way in 1741 and told others of the awesome landscape, precipitating the arrival of French, Swiss and English pilgrims and scientists.