Half of the Col de l'Amône

Thurs 12th: Brèche de l'Amône - Spring touring snow

Been in a bit of a funk recently with wind ruining plans and lazy days. As a result I'd only skied once this week so when Oscar asked me about this route I was well up for it, despite having to be at work for 15:15. Trying to fit it in before work was very ambitious as it usually takes 6-7 hours. With an early start Oscar, Luke and I arrived at top station just after 9 with no queue. Luckily they're now opening earlier.

Due to the gaping crevasses in the skier's right routes down to the basin and reports of the high traverse being especially bad we stuck well left and dropped onto the basin via the couloir off the rognon. This resulted in elongating an already very long skin right up to the very end of the Argy basin. We moved quickly in the with no breaks, aided by the cool breeze funneling down the basin.

Luke looking up the glacier

Military takes on the Col d'Argentiere

Oscar stowing his gear in front of the the Col du Tour Noir

Unfortunately we lost quite a lot of time further up the glacier. We chose to backtrack and skin roped up on the right hand shoulder to avoid some questionable snow bridges. After carefully crossing two larger snowbridges we arrived at the bottom of the couloir around 12pm, after ~7km of skinning.

On

And on

And on

We switched to crampons and began the bootpack, staying roped as we still had to cross the bergschrund (filled but obvious). All was fine for the first 150m, bar stripping to thermals, until my warning alarm for work went off. I was pretty annoyed. I carried on up for another 15 mins to a rocky section where I ditched the rope and transitioned to ski mode. The others continued up. In my jealousy I gave them a few choice swear words, told them to be quick before the snow baked, wished them luck.

Oscar's POV of me setting the bootpack

Sad to have to bail

Still a nice steep descent

Oscar's POV skiing the top (I was at work by then)

I put my headphones in and dropped in. The snow was very warm for the first section as the sun had been on it a while. Below was very hard but good fun and not icy. I followed the route out we'd planned carefully on the skin up and took in the amazing views the Argentiere basin has to offer. I was down in a quick 45 minutes and off to work with plenty of time to spare. Annoying as I could've reached the top without the various delays and me leaving a lot of time for work... Oh well. Next time.

Entrance to the glacier looking a little sparse

I just love it

When I first skied up the Midi I thought nothing easily lift-accessed would top it, but the Argy basin does. The mountains tower above on all sides. Skier's left is a constant 45-60 degree wall of classic steep skiing lines and there are plenty on the right... There are multiple, easily accessed, cols that offer stunning views of Switzerland and Italy. It's probably my favourite place and I hope to spend a lot more time up there this year.

NB. Link to Oscar's Blog of the same day where the POV photos were from.