For both summer mountaineering and winter ski courses it’s great and recommended if you have the time to arrive a day or more early. This gives you time to start acclimatising for your course in a relaxed way with some warm up walking, climbing or skiing. There are great options in Chamonix for using the many and varied lifts to access the middle and high mountains easily and thus have an enjoyable warm up to your course. Please check our suggestions for Chamonix acclimatisation walks, using the lifts, staying in huts on our dedicated page here. Arriving early also allows any ski or climbing equipment to be hired and tested in advance of starting the course.
Most of our courses start at around 0800-0830 on the first morning of the course in central Chamonix and often finish around 1600-1630 back in Chamonix.
For travelling home after the course has finished we recommend travelling the day after the official finish date of your course. This means that if there is a big summit day or any delays on this last day, you are not stressed to catch a flight that evening.
Many people do fly home from Geneva airport late on the evening of the last day of the course, generally without any problems, but we don’t take any responsibility for delays that can take place in the mountains, or on the roads, which result in you missing your flight. So, whilst you are welcome to book your flight on the last night of the course, the risk of missing it is yours. Staying an extra night in Chamonix at the end of your trip, or in Zermatt on our Matterhorn courses, also means you get to relax and enjoy the final night atmosphere of your trip before heading back home.
