Yesterday's lap was so good I went on the hunt for people to join me for an afternoon lap between shifts. Lukas agreed to come along for the first time this season and his friend Ali joined us. The only difference was I was coming on a board in my ski boots (the second time on a board since I dropped it 6 years ago). Due to delays at work and me having to run back up to Brevent to get my poles we arrived at the bottom of the arête at ~14:30. We also bumped into Angus, Adam and Gabe and ended up leapfrogging each other the whole run down.
The prospect of dropping straight off the bottom of the arête scared the pants off me. The snow was very firm and I was on Arvid's snowboard which is both too small and has no edges. 35-40 degrees of hard chalky snow had the adrenaline flowing and is almost certainly the steepest I've boarded. I put in a handful of turns - none of which were pretty - struggling desperately to get the edges to bite. I descended lower than usual then straight-lined it in an attempt to cut down the poling through the plateau. I reached the waiting spot before the Rognon easily enough. Getting to the top of Rognon was less fun. Uphill heelside traverses are just ridiculous. No idea how to do it, I had to unstrap 1 foot and do some weird motion which took forever considering it was such a small distance.
I eventually reached the others and we chose to drop further skier's right. There there was still powder there between fewer tracks. Great first pitch of powder, instantly reminding me why I used to board in my teenage years. We carried on over to the shoulder and traversed around further right. At one point on the traverse there was a narrow 1.5" hole further uphill, where someone had inadvertently broken through a bridge when skiing over it (and not gone in). We gave it a wide berth but it was still pretty sobering. The snow we found had had more wind, but this had blown the previous tracks flat. Great fun and easy to cruise the wind affected snow on a board. We exited along the traverse put in by the guided parties the day before.
The descent to the Requin was easy; no need to pole and some good chalky snow. Only a 100m walk (not on glaciated terrain) to the hut was necessary. Another quick bootpack and some scrambling and we dropped onto the glacier via the Requin bowl. A long push - having to briefly remove my trailing foot twice - and we were down at Montenvers. We made the last train down with time to spare. The others went for a pint in Elevation whilst I headed to work.
The whole thing had taken about an hour and a quarter (three hours including lift and train). We hadn't rushed, but I hadn't stopped once due to the taking longer on the traverses. The quads on my leading leg were utterly knackered. I chatted to Lukas on the way down and he admitted he'd been unsure of me doing it on a board, but was impressed with my pace and ability. I shamelessly admitted I had been pretty worried too. It was much more challenging for me than any of the skiing I'd done recently but that's exactly why I wanted to do it. I'm happy with my level of boarding and felt fine doing the whole thing with poles out. At one point on the steeper part I was apparently pole planting... oh dear. Brilliant afternoon between work shifts.
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| Boarding with poles out, like a boss (taken by Lukas) |
I eventually reached the others and we chose to drop further skier's right. There there was still powder there between fewer tracks. Great first pitch of powder, instantly reminding me why I used to board in my teenage years. We carried on over to the shoulder and traversed around further right. At one point on the traverse there was a narrow 1.5" hole further uphill, where someone had inadvertently broken through a bridge when skiing over it (and not gone in). We gave it a wide berth but it was still pretty sobering. The snow we found had had more wind, but this had blown the previous tracks flat. Great fun and easy to cruise the wind affected snow on a board. We exited along the traverse put in by the guided parties the day before.
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| Cant even tell I'm boarding (taken by Lukas) |
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| Ali crusing (taken by Lukas) |
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| No need to sit down when you have poles... |
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| Ok, just a little sit to take in the view |
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| Mid-turning round (Taken by Lukas) |
The descent to the Requin was easy; no need to pole and some good chalky snow. Only a 100m walk (not on glaciated terrain) to the hut was necessary. Another quick bootpack and some scrambling and we dropped onto the glacier via the Requin bowl. A long push - having to briefly remove my trailing foot twice - and we were down at Montenvers. We made the last train down with time to spare. The others went for a pint in Elevation whilst I headed to work.
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| Requin exit bowl (taken by Ali) |
The whole thing had taken about an hour and a quarter (three hours including lift and train). We hadn't rushed, but I hadn't stopped once due to the taking longer on the traverses. The quads on my leading leg were utterly knackered. I chatted to Lukas on the way down and he admitted he'd been unsure of me doing it on a board, but was impressed with my pace and ability. I shamelessly admitted I had been pretty worried too. It was much more challenging for me than any of the skiing I'd done recently but that's exactly why I wanted to do it. I'm happy with my level of boarding and felt fine doing the whole thing with poles out. At one point on the steeper part I was apparently pole planting... oh dear. Brilliant afternoon between work shifts.
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