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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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