Dust on crust

Tues 27th: Le Tour - 20cm dust on crappy previous layer

Chucked all my ski stuff in the van and was able to make Le Tour straight from work at 9:30 to meet Rasmus and others. Opening had been delayed so I was only two runs behind. We went straight over to the back side and headed skier's right of Tête de Balme. Snow was deep in places and crap in others, varying every turn. Followed the others onto the front bowl. 20cm of champagne snow on top of crappy crust.

The occasional face shot finding a deep spot

Lapped right by the Plan des Reines drag for mostly good snow with crap occasionally in between. Did two quick laps under the Tête de Balme for a few powder turns. Still, it was nothing special so I headed home to do some odd jobs I had been putting off. Bit of an anticlimax, oh well. Probably partially to do with being knackered from work.

Visibility was shifting but good generally

Testing out the new toys in Cogne

Mon 26th: Cogne, Italy



















With all aspects of snow ruined by wind I excitedly accepted Jon's invitation to Cogne for my first proper ice-climb. A late start, a junction too far on the motorway and a 100e fine for not going through the peages correctly resulted in a slight downer to start the day (we carefully checked for signs before turning around and there were none).

We eventually got to the parking, geared up and set off. Great views and a lot of ice. The hike in was longer than stated and the closer climbs had groups on them. Eventually we found a nice grade 3 and started to hike up. The hike up was vile and way longer than we expected. After stripping off we finally made it to the base and geared up.

Amazing waterfalls en route

The second pitch was clearly harder than the first. I wanted to lead my first ice pitch so I jumped straight in and lead the easier pitch. Sam and Mike roped up leaving me and Jon paired. I was bricking it as Sam, starting before I did, said the ice was poor. As soon as I started I gained confidence and flew up, only to get to a trickier bit and remember I hadn't actually placed any protection in the easier 7+ metres below. Oops. Placing the first screw was an absolute ball-ache and took forever whilst my hands / calves were screaming. I'd never placed a screw with only one hand and it is MUCH harder than you expect. You need to apply force and twist without dropping it (as Jon did later...). Eventually I got it in and continued up, placing a few more screws.

At the anchor I had to have 5 minutes to dispel the ridiculous hot aches I was getting having not shaken out for the entire pitch (or "screaming barfies" as Jon calls them). Absolute agony. The most pain I've been in for a long time. All I was thinking was "why the f**k do people do this s**t". Thankfully they subsided and I brought Jon up. By this time Mike was leading the harder pitch: After working hard to get his first screw in near vertical he carried on up slowly. Jon climbed on to his left and raced up, catching Mike at the top only to get dizzy and start to lose vision. Mike quickly got Jon safe and after he built an abalakov (anchor directly into the ice) and placed a screw, I lowered Jon down. Mike followed, tired from leading. 

As Jon was feeling better he belayed me up the same pitch. I felt really good and found it pretty easy. Whilst confident, I didn't want to lead the last pitch as it was already very late and I didn't wan't to get stuck building anchors up there in the dark without a torch. Sam got to the top just after me and decided to go for the final pitch. I decided to wait for the other two to get up and then use their rope to join them.

Unfortunately Sam tired himself out halfway up the final pitch and had to retreat. Without a tool for threading the abalakov this took him a VERY long time. Eventually he managed it and we lowered him down whilst he abseiled as we weren't sure how strong the achors were (they weren't that deep). He got down safely and we hastily rappeled down to our bags and packed up in the dark with two head-torches between the four of us. We walked down the crappy path in crampons and then hit the main path for a scenic walk back.

En route home we stopped in at a cafe for an amazing, inexpensive, pizza. Got to love Italy.

Late night gear sortout

Despite everything going wrong we all had a good day. Though my experience is virtually nil, I can say that on good ice, ice climbing is actually not that hard in itself compared to climbing. However the protection is just so much harder, time consuming and annoying to use. I'm sure that leading will get easier as I continue, but as of now the gulf between lead / top-rope is huge. This probably wasn't helped by my crampons being blunt and rubbish meaning I mainly used my arms.

Wind ravages the valley, nothing left untouched

Sun 25th: Flegere - wind-scoured with occasional pockets

Headed up to GM with Bob aiming to do Col de Passon. The wind in the car park was so strong we turned around immediately. Headed to Flegere to see if Berard was better. After a long queue we arrived to gale force winds. Crazy bad. Touring was off so did few laps around Index finding where the snow had collected. Few straight-line couloirs and drops. Fun but nothing special. Bob went back. I was just about to when I saw someone skiing down from the the couloir lookers right above Index. The snow looked pretty good...

Cold enough to use my hood for the first time ever?

Figured what the hell so toured up. Again my skins were awful on the steeps (far too small for my fat skis) so I slipped a lot. Boot-packed up to the top and transitioned. Couldn't turn for the first 20m due to there being 5+ people in the way. Mediocre, tracked, wind affected snow down. Stuck high skier's right to join the boot-pack someone had put in to an un-skied section. Toiled up (snow was VERY deep) and skied back down to end the day. Wind affected but untracked so still quite fun. Bit of a anti-climatic day, shame.

Busy couloir much...

Near perfect day on Glacier du Mort

Fri 23rd: Glacier du Mort - 30+cm soft powder

Col de Berard was amazing the other day so Ryan and I headed back up to the Aiguilles Rogues. A late start left us at the back of a giant skin queue. Our quick pace and changeovers jumped most of them, and the ones in front were heading elsewhere anyway. On the first skin we bumped into Arvid and Lukas who didn't have the gear to join us and continued on to Berard. At the top of the Col Ryan dropped his Norrona down jacket on the changeover and it blew down the mountain in the strong wind. He just about managed to get his skis on and race down and dive on it before it blew over the lip 400m below. Pretty hilarious.

Just a few in front

At least the view was amazing

No one had put the track up to Mort since the wind had hit the south faces (there was an old one). Ryan opted to let me lead so I cut a fresh track (fine - its all fitness). 3/4 of the way up I was slipping like crazy so switched to a boot-pack. This was little better - most of the time I was wading on all fours expending a disgusting amount of energy. We got to the plateau and I was knackered but happy having cut track the entire way. Crampons and axe out and carried on to the top. A guy had gone past on the plateau but waited for his friends at the top so we dropped in first.

"Always let the kids put in the bootpack" - Ryan

There were around four tracks in the whole descent from Mort from the previous two days. The first 50m was wind-scoured but as soon we entered the bowl below the snow was perfect. Long pitches of skiing in untouched powder. Glorious. Bumped into Arvid and Lukas again where the routes intersect, they'd had a long lunch. We skied down more epic powder which was only slightly marred by me clipping yet another rock and front-flipping in an otherwise deep bowl.

Enjoying the amazing snow

The exit was much easier than before, knowing where the bad bits were. A quick beer and we all got the train / bus back. Awesome day - so good that Ryan went back the next day to repeat it solo as I was working.

Weather started moving in as we exited to Buet

Adventure down Petit Envers

Thurs 22nd: Aiguille du Midi - 40cm soft / wind affected


















Got up early to a better forecast than expected. Shifting clouds with a lot of sun. Ryan was desperate to get up the Midi despite my hesitance. Having work at 16:00 was playing on my mind, especially if the exit was poor. We headed up fully geared with a 60m rope each discussing conditions of various routes. The Rond looked poor, Cosmiques had been slabby the day before and apparently there had been an avalanche on the Grand Envers (we later found out it was a lot worse than we'd heard). As we reached the top cloud moved in and the snow started falling. I was pretty hesitant but agreed to continue on down for a while. The visibility was much better lower down and I knew that we had plenty of time to turn back and skin back up.

As there were no ropes in, we roped up for the arête. First time in a year and it was interesting. A guide was taking down two clients in front of us which gave us some confidence. Quick, windless, changeover and a discussion about routes. Grand was out due to windslab and large crevasses, Rognon was in the air, and the guide ended up taking a route down Petit Envers. We opted to head a similar direction in the knowledge that we'd be able to either traverse out to the exit of Grand or follow the guide's route.

Dropping over the shoulder into Petit found some really good soft snow accompanied by a stark drop in temperate and increase in wind. The only tracks in view were the guided party. We were conservative, not straying anywhere near the crevasses either side. Great, unaffected snow, but the mood was stifled by being in the unknown. When it came to the open section we roped up and pushed / skied together making sure we were never both on a bridge. Skiing together was interesting but not too bad. The bridges looked very solid but still very glad we didn't take the risk. We continued, roped, until a filled in section which required proper skiing rather than to just a downwards traverse.

Visibility was actually not bad despite the poor photo

The snow was wind affected but not too slabby. We headed down, moving further skier's left until we hit the top of the Requin couloirs, when we finally relaxed (slightly). By this point we'd passed the guided party and chatted to another off duty guide checking out the route for this year. We apologised profusely to the guide for following his tracks through the open section but he was having none of it, lovely, happy guy. The couloirs had been scoured by wind. The final exit couloir had debris down it from a slide a few days previously. All three groups took it one by one and very carefully. The exit was fine on the track and gaping everywhere else. Crazy how open it still is.

The visibility finally opened up a little lower than expected

Great day, but I have no desire to go up again for a while with it being so open, especially due to the sad news from Grand Envers the day before.

Quick Col de Berard between shifts

Tues 20th: Col de Berard - 40cm soft powder

Arrived back in Chamonix after work at 11:30 to find fleeting sunny spells. A quick decision lead to picking Ryan up and heading to Flegere to check out the conditions in the Aiguilles Rouges. Ryan had already skinned up GM home run, I had work at 5pm and the weather was iffy so we ditched the crampons and axes, opting to do the easier Col de Berard again.















The first skin went quickly. Navigating the rock-step mid bootpack, with my skis over the shoulder, was delicate... next time they're going on my backpack. A quick transition and we headed off. The visibility was shifting between non-existant and pretty good. The snow was sublime and stable.
Another quick transition, a few photos and up to the Col. The visibility had moved in but when we reached the Col it was clear that there were only a handful of tracks in the whole slope. Within 100m vert we dropped out of the cloud band and could see where we were going. The snow was deep and soft. Long pitches without stopping and big grins. Continuing with the recent trend I managed to clip a shark fin, putting a 4" core-shot into my skis and flipping me over. No damage to myself fortunately... Further down I found an untouched spine with face-shots to boot. Awesome.

The exit wasn't perfect but was unrecognisable from last time I did it. We only walked for a 50m section compared to a 30min walk last time. Made it down to a 35 minute wait for the train so Ryan had a beer. Back at the van at 16:00, 3.5 hours after we started. If we were pushing it and timed the trains it's easy to do in 2 and 3/4 hours. Plenty of time to shower and eat before my next shift.

The one on the left ski is a 4" core shot gouge

Quick ENSA run

Mon 19th: Brevent - Soft snow (no fresh)

Met my adventure buddy from last year, Ryan, at Flegere for first lifts. We called off our planned tour as the cloud had descended and it was snowing lightly. Annoyingly it cleared up and the cloud raised, but by then it was too late. Instead we went to our backup plan to ski ENSA couloir off Brevent top lift. I'd chatted to people who'd done it yesterday and they said it was in really good nick, perfect for a bad weather day. After messing around with buses we quickly grabbed rope and harnesses and headed up.

The ski to the entrance still had powder but a lot of rocks. After a short bootpack we skied in, looking for the abseil anchor someone had kindly set up. Eventually we spotted it, set up the twin 30s and rappelled in. 2x30s left us at a very steep section, fine to sidestep down but a little annoying to faff with ropes on.

ENSA is the blue line, shamelessly stolen off Lorne's Blog

Getting ready to rappel in

There had already been a lot of traffic in the couloir but the snow was still good and there was no hardpack / ice until far below the exit. Carefully dodging the rocky sections we carried on down to the main face. Patches of ice and rock greeted us but it wasn't in bad nick at all until much further down. There were a few long sections of sideslipping/sidestepping but not too bad.

Ryans first turns of the season

Looking back up to the exit

We skied all the way down to the lift station taking our skis off only once (probably should've done it another 1-2 times). Good to have finally done it, having been talking about it for ages. Need to go up again though and get it on a powder day. Also respect to Ryan as this was his first run on skis in 7 months, not the easiest.

Rocks, drops and face shots at Brevent

Sun 18th: Brevent - 30-50cm fresh blower powder.

Woke up early to a glorious clear sky; game on. To my surprise every lift in the valley was open... on time. Headed up Brevent to meet Oscar. He was late as two buses went past full so I jumped in the first top bin solo. Most of the bin headed straight to Hotel face with Nicklas cutting the track. On the main ridge I opted to go skiers left. Nicklas followed me having decided against skier's right. I let him go as he put the whole track in, cutting the slope for him. It was pretty stable. I chose the couloir further left that I'd skied with Oscar the other day then downclimb over the rocks into the gully I'd done with Steve on Thursday. Fresh line the whole way down and didn't cross a track. Tons of sluff, face-shots and an epic run. Big grin and glad I didn't wait. No friends... well you know the saying.

Just a few in front...

Still get untouched all the way down

A white Chamonix from my window

Headed up for a second time in the same couloir. I had the only track in it so still great fun. Popped up Cornu to quickly say hi to some friends. The couloir I'd skied the other day was still untouched... why not. Great at the top and below it but the couloir itself was dire. Less coverage than the other day. Really surprising. People saw the rocks I'd uncovered and it took a good two hours for another person to attempt it. I pity their skis, mine were bad enough with a two inch ridged gash creating a real drag. I had to attack it with a flathead screwdriver at the lift.

Fun line bar the middle section

Met up with Oscar and his French friend Max. They'd already had two good laps on the bootpack far skier's left so we went up for another lap. Wicked snow and still pretty untracked. In the end we did another four runs of the bootpack choosing various different lines including one with a straightline couloir entrance. I was bricking it a bit.

Oscar and Max deciding on a route

Oscar's GoPro shot

Guy bringing his kid on the traverse...

He was tiny... couldn't have been more than 6

In between we did a couple of laps of the Charles Bozon face dropping off a cool wall. Big and a flat-ish landing but great fun.

Oscar dropping the wall

Me following

By the end I was bloody knackered from 6+ traverses, 4 bootpacks and some seriously fast skiing with no breaks. I'd also hit a lot of submerged rocks. I clipped a shark-fin mid turn which completely flipped me over. Luckily I was already below the rock bands and was completely fine. My skiing had taken a dive and I'd taken some falls so I headed back with Oscar. Great day.

NB. Oscar's blog post.