I will stay in Geneva for a few days in early January and plan to take a day trip to Chamonix.
I'm contemplating whether to make a reservation for the bus to Chamonix and the Aiguille du Midi cable car right before the trip. While booking now would be cheaper, I'm concerned about the possibility of bad weather on the chosen day.
Do you think the weather will significantly impact the day trip? Or would it be okay to make the reservation now?
Can weather significantly impact the day trip? Of course. It is, after all,
winter. The weather can cloud and storm up even in the summer. There
is just no way to know until the day or two before, or even the day of.
Note that you will most likely be sharing your car with skiers, and you will need
to be prepared to dress (very) warmly especially if you want to walk outside
when you're at the top.
If this is a once-in-a-blue-moon opportunity, I'd book the bus or train ticket, maybe
as a refundable option, and then decide on the trip the day or two before. I don't
think the AdM ticket changes in price as you get closer to the day, but I could be
wrong about that. You would need to finesse watching the weather forecast and
reserving a time that gives you enough chance to see everything.
We went up the Aiguille in late May and made our bus and cable reservations the night before when the weather looked promising.
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2023/03/27/quick-trip-up-the-aiquille-du-midi-chamonix/
It is foolhardy reserve this far in advance as it is not worth doing (and not cheap) if it is fogged in. I assume risks are even higher in January than they were in May. Of course in January presumably there will be lots of skiers using the cars -- we only had a handful in May.
