Exploring Chamonix With France's Most Fearless Ski Patrollers

Chamonix is one of the most iconic winter sports destinations on the planet, and one of the last remaining on my snowboarding bucket list. Home to the picturesque behemoth that is Mount Blanc—the highest peak in the Alps range at 15,774 feet that divides the borders of France, Switzerland, and Italy—the area hosts several million people in search of deep snow, steep trails, and epic scenery each year. So when an editor called with the golden ticket to spend a few days touring the many resorts that flank both sides of the Chamonix valley, I didn’t ask many questions.

The assignment: experience the life of the Compagnie du Mont-Blanc (SDMB) ski patrollers, the safety and rescue professionals managing some of the world’s biggest mountains. Ski patrolling is intense everywhere, but especially in the Alps where huge slabs of glacier hang off peaks 3,000 meters above sea level, gondolas and chairlifts cross vast, open ridges, and wide bowls surrounded by craggy rock walls funnel into avalanche chutes of certain death.

Most skiers in the Alps never directly interact with the SDMB. They stick to groomers (on piste) and après patios, where they loosen their boots and enjoy stemmed glasses of wine facing the alpine sun. But evidence of free riding exists if you look for it. From the highest peaks you can see off piste tracks in all directions that make you scratch your head: “Why the hell would someone decide to ski down that?” or “How is it even possible to access that line?"

In terrain of this severity, patrollers hold the line between life and death of thousands of skiers and snowboarders each year. Across the five main resorts in Chamonix, patrollers perform over a thousand rescues each season. But even if you evade calamity, you benefit from the work the patrollers do regarding mountain safety, weather-related closures, and avalanche control.

I was absolutely stoked to snowboard with them.

The trip was put on by Helly Hansen, who outfit the SDMB ski patrol, featuring media guests from the U.K., Scandinavia, and North America, some HH staff, and pro skiers. I ended up being one of two snowboarders in the entire crew, and clocked some concerned looks as we loaded into the gondola on day one. But the two decades I’ve spent snowboarding, including 10 years of riding professionally, proved enough that I could keep up. The couple of turns I carved during the first run were enough to put everyone at ease,

Weather is a dice roll on short trips, but the gods smiled on the Alps during our four day trip. We were gifted a day of white-out blizzard followed by three days of bluebird sunshine, which proved no issue for the items in the FW25 HELLY TECH outerwear collection we got to test all week.

It certainly helped us look the part of SDMB VIPs. These French cats are certainly very accomplished skiers, but being a patroller is their identity. They’ve dedicated their lives to the mountain, spending nearly every day in the high alpine.

At Balme Le Tour resort, the crew is young—new blood with a sharp focus on certification training and pushing rescue technology. After completing the required patrol certifications, mandatory “hours on the job,” and high-level first-aid training, these patrollers are choosing to specialize. Some become experts in avalanche safety, others alpine weather. Still others (maybe the luckiest) become dog handlers.

We followed along on hill as they showed us how they set up the runs each morning with color-coded signage. There are a lot more accidents these days, we learned, because people are often more focused on filming their runs with iPhones and GoPros than experiencing them. Footage from rescues is extremely common, they say, and often ends up in insurance claims.

At Grands Montets ski area, the patrollers are older dudes—lifers who’ve been on the crew for decades. When asked about the absence of female patrollers, they acknowledged they’re working on it and the goal is to establish a more diverse workforce.

Life as a ski patroller is full of stark contrast: lots of down time and practice that leads to highly intense rescue missions. When on-call, they need to be ready to act at any moment. Our day with this crew was relatively chill, thanks to soft snow and perfect visibility. But we did get to watch a young Golden Retriever nail a mock rescue.

Walking the cobbled streets of the Chamonix village in the late afternoon, I saw adventure-seeking skiers casually return to town with backcountry packs heavily accessorized with ice axes and cramp-ons, wearing big smiles. These were the skiers who set the unfathomable tracks down the most extreme faces in the high alpine and now they’d returned to town—like they’d gone to war in the mountains and had come home with harrowing tales to share over frosty pints.

For us North Americans, European skiing has a classic allure that feels exotic. There aren’t hours-long lineups of powder hounds with their elbows out awaiting the first chairlift. Lift ticket prices are reasonable and the on-hill food is better. There are no ropes in the lift lines, but guests have no trouble staying organized. Weirder, when you order a coffee, you get tokens to take to a machine. Wouldn’t it be simpler to just be able to put money in the coffee machine itself? I asked the local HH guide Dimitri. He smiled. “If it makes sense, it’s not French.”

When the lifts shut down for the day, patrollers at each resort do a final safety sweep to make sure no one is stranded on the runs. Our last sweep happened at Grand Montets, as the sun was setting behind Mont Blanc. It was a fitting end to an incredible trip. I shook hands in farewell with lead patroller, Laurent. Perhaps seeing how sad I was to be leaving, he gave us a parting message: “Enjoy the life!”

I think I will!