First tracks on the Rond

Tues 22nd: Ryan, Petter, Jim and I were at the Midi for 7:45. No reservations today... Hmmm. Three bins worth of people were there waiting, ready for the scrum. Ryan, Petter and I waited by the entrance to see what happened. Eventually a woman came over and opened the queue. After ten tense seconds of pushing and shoving Ryan, Petter and I made it into the queue, right at the front. Jim had decided to skip the queue and join some others later.

Ryan and Petter getting ready by the Cosmiques arête

We got up and out quickly despite Petter leaving his poles at the top of the arête... the fool. Followed in a few tracks to the Simond hut to see a few people scoping out the Cosmiques couloir. No one had gone into the Rond. A snowboarder, Flo, was waiting for us to put a track in. I was ready so headed in first, a bit nervous. There was a layer of champagne powder on top of the previous layer. I traversed across to the left shoulder on a dusting of snow on top of glacier ice. Sluff poured off way down the face. It was only slightly more forgiving than last time.

The entrance to the Rond - untouched

After a tense turn the snow got better and I was away. Long, linked turns the entire way down with sluff everywhere. I chose to ski straight down the centre of the glacier, forgoing the deepest snow on the right in favour of the direct line. Instead I just looked for the runnels of snow and it was fantastic. Soft, deep and steep. A complete contrast to the last time we skied it. Petter came down the left and Ryan in the deep snow on the right.

Happy days

Ryan with the Cunninghams couloir backdrop

After a quick rappel we were into the exit couloir. Flo had jumped past us through a narrow, rocky gully that was far too narrow to sideslip on skis. The fantastic snow continued until the last 100m where there was the remnants of a slide. Even then it was good. After jumping the bergschrund we were down and began the long traverse out.

Ryan, Petter and the Midi lined up

Petter enjoying the powder 

Freshies all the way down

Opening the turns up in the exit couloir

Making our way down to Bossons glacier

It was slow and hard work. As the heaviest I was breaking through every step and there were times on the bootpack I was up to my waist in heavy snow. Eventually after a few scrambles, some incredible scenery and some crusty snow we were back at the mid-station where we bumped into Flo again. After a quick rest Ryan and Petter headed off for a second lap but tired, I headed down.

The traverse back to mid-station

Jaw dropping views

The north face up close

In the evening Liam, Nick, Sonny and Gibbs came round for some cards and a lot of beer and wine. After a few hours we headed out for a fun evening at Terrasse; the last Tequila Tuesday of the season. Another fantastic day.