D-01
FIS · giant slalom & super-G
Alpine race
Timed sessions on grooved race-camber pistes. Video review after every descent. A coach who once ran the course at Wengen.
−37.2°
Average gate angle
Aurora
−14.3°C·2,847 M
Reserve a weekSeason 2026 · bases in five ranges
A mountain that asks you
to show up early.
Aurora is an alpine performance school for skiers and snowboarders who have stopped being beginners. Off-piste coaching, race training, splitboard programs, and heli-access expeditions — across five ranges, run by a team of IFMGA guides who plan the week around the snowpack, not the calendar.
Temp
−14.3°C
Aiguille du Midi
Wind
22 km/h
N-NE · gusts 38
Snow 24h
14 cm
Above 1,800 m
Freeze
+2,180 m
Rising 04:40
Bases · 2026 season
Chamonix3,842 mZermatt3,883 mVerbier3,330 mHokkaido1,898 mBariloche3,478 mÅre1,420 mEngelberg3,238 mChamonix3,842 mZermatt3,883 mVerbier3,330 mHokkaido1,898 mBariloche3,478 mÅre1,420 mEngelberg3,238 m
01 · Disciplines
Five practices,
one snowpack.
Every program shares the same morning bulletin, the same radio channel, and the same small dining room at the end of the day. What changes is the line.
Program
D-02
Off-piste · cliff lines
Freeride
Line choice, progressive exposure, and the patience to wait three weeks for the right storm cycle. Small groups, always.
1,840 m
Vertical, per descent
D-03
Ascending terrain · touring
Splitboard
Skinning technique, transitions under time pressure, and kick-turn rhythm on 34-degree traverses. Weight-tested kit included.
34°
Skin-track gradient
D-04
Avalanche-aware · remote lines
Backcountry
Snowpack reading, shovel pits, beacon searches timed to ISSW standard. One day is always assessment before any descent.
−14.3°C
Typical starting temp
D-05
Multi-day · refuge to refuge
Ski touring
The Haute Route rebuilt over seven days. Two guides per six guests. The distance between meals is measured in vertical.
11,200 m
Cumulative vertical
02 · A first-tracks day
Dawn at 2,847 m.
The coffee is cold
by 04:42.
A walkthrough of an ordinary touring day at the Chamonix base — not the photograph of one. Times, altitudes, and the small decisions that sit inside an ordinary morning when the snowpack is cooperative.
Logged · 11 March 2026
Vertical
1,812 m
Elapsed
04:36:12
04:421,320 m
01 / 04Pre-dawn radio check
Guide channel at 04:42. Avalanche bulletin read aloud, wind-loaded aspects marked in red on the morning chart. Coffee is poured but only briefly.
05:281,940 m
02 / 04Skinning into the col
Four kilometres of kick-and-glide on a 26-degree skin track. The stars are still out. The first birds have not started yet.
06:572,847 m
03 / 04Summit decision
Shovel pit cut on the south-east face. Three stability tests. The group votes audibly — a ritual, not a democracy. The aspect is green. We go.
07:182,847 m
04 / 04First tracks
Thirty-seven-degree pitch. Powder is 18 cm over a firm June base. Nobody speaks. You can hear the sluff from the skier above you moving.
03 · Season log
Numbers, without adjectives.
Figures from the 2026 winter season at our Chamonix base. Published without a marketing pass — a spreadsheet exported to HTML and styled afterwards.
01
Mean summit elevation, winter season.
2,847m
02
Average slope across advanced descents.
37.2°
03
Operational snow days, Chamonix base.
168days
04
Guide to guest ratio on advanced programs.
1 : 3
05
Average morning temperature at skin start.
−14.3°C
06
Cumulative vertical in a standard week.
46,200m
04 · Conditions
The station reads,
we listen.
A live-feed snapshot from the Aiguille du Midi weather station. Refreshed every three minutes. The same screen our head guide reads before every programme.
StationCHX-04 · Aiguille du Midi
Live · 04:42 CET
Temperature
−14.3°C
Feels · −22.1°C
24 h · temperature curveChamonix
Wind
22 km/h · N-NE
Visibility
9.4 km
Snow · 24 h
14 cm
Snow base
287 cm
Freeze line
+2,180 m
05 · Guides
Four heads,
one radio channel.
Aurora is capped at four head guides and eight certified second guides. You will know them by name before your second morning.
G-01
Matthias Hohenberg
Head guide · Backcountry
Forty seasons on the Aiguilles. Has read more snowpacks than most people have read books. Quiet until lunch.
IFMGA · ASAP Level 3
G-02
Yui Kawabata
Technical · Freeride
Niseko-born, Chamonix-trained. Teaches powder skiing the way a tea ceremony is taught — by slowing you down first.
JMGA · IFMGA candidate
G-03
Sigurd Eliassen
Race · Alpine
Former Norwegian national team. Runs the Thursday race clinic. Will tell you when your line is slow before you finish the sentence.
FIS Level C · PSIA Level III
G-04
Clémentine Favre
Touring · Multi-day
Haute Route specialist. Hut etiquette, weather windows, and a pack-weight philosophy she will happily argue at length.
UIAGM · Wilderness EMT
06 · Field notes
What people wrote afterwards.
01 / 03
“The assessment day changed how I ski. I thought I understood snowpacks. I understood the diagram.”
Henrik V., Oslo
Backcountry · Chamonix, Jan 2026
02 / 03
“Three mornings of race drills and my giant slalom time came down 0.7 seconds. On the fourth morning Sigurd asked me if I was enjoying it.”
Nadia A., London
Alpine race · Verbier, Feb 2026
03 / 03
“We waited out two storms before the heli-access day. I would wait two more. The line we eventually skied justified the whole week.”
Oskar K., Reykjavík
Freeride · Hokkaido, Mar 2026
07 · Common questions
Before the alarm goes off.
The head guide reads the SLF bulletin at 04:30, adds wind overnight data, and meets with the team at 04:50. A program is posted by 05:15. Weather cancellations are refunded in full; avalanche-risk cancellations are rolled into a future date.
Pass · season 2026
ARC-04-0422
Valid from
28 Nov · 2026
Base
Chamonix · CHX-01
Reserve a week
Show up early,
leave with a
new line.
Programs start every Monday, November through April. A head guide confirms your group’s program by the Saturday evening before, once the storm cycle is known.
Issued to
The early riser.
Days
7
Vertical · cap
46,200 m
Ratio
1 : 3
Alarm
04:42
ARC · 04 · 0422 · CHX · 2026