History of Val d’Arly mountain guides

To find out more about the long history of the Val d’Arly Guide Bureau, we turn to Luc Berthelot, its former president with 43 years of service. With meticulous attention to detail, he recounts the peregrinations, sporting exploits, anecdotes, mountain races, dramas and battles of ego of the great mountaineers.

Intimately linked to the local tourist economy, the story begins at the beginning of the 20th century, with the ski guides. You have to imagine a winter landscape where all the slopes are accessible from the village,” says Luc Berthelot. Every summit of today’s Evasion Mont Blanc is traversed by skiers, sealskins tied under their skis with strings.”

The funny mandarin trail
The best-known itinerary is the Mont d’Arbois mandarin trail. A name so unlocal that it’s justified: “To quench their travelers’ thirst, the ski guides would take mandarins out of their bags. The peelings were tossed casually onto the snow. Baroness Noémie de Rothschild,
a cross-country skier, took offense at this, and whenever a ski guide was negligent, he was on clean-up duty,” explains Luc Berthelot. Two other classics of the era: the Olympique and the piste des Genevois. The latter would arrive in Sallanches by train, then take all day to make the round trip to the Col du Jaillet or even Croisse Baulet. In spring, it was the Véry, Mont Joly and Les Saisies passes, the Espace Diamant almost a century earlier.
This golden age for the ski guide company came to an end between 1933 and 1934 with the creation of the Rochebrune and Mont d’Arbois cable cars. The ski guides then become ski instructors. In 1969, Henri Perinet set up a guide office in Megève to create a summer offering… Read more