Down the Midi for 7:50 to get a reservation. Get handed number 25... What the f... They skipped 11-24 - reserved for guides? Thanks entirely to Steve and some of his friends Oskar and I managed to wangle two 9s. WINNER. We were still 6th bin of the day and there were a lot of people in front of us.
First down the arête, dropped in high and we were at the Rond in a big queue from the previous few bins. Everyone in Chamonix had had the same plan. The traverse at the start of the Rond was very hard / ice in places - a bit nerve-racking but oh well. We jumped past the group in front and skied down fast. The snow was grippy on skier's left and tracked powder on skier's right. Did the whole face in under a minute, Oskar far less. I was a little unsure of my new skis in the variable snow and felt I could quite easily sink a tip. Need to get used to the centre mounting.
No rappel was necessary for the exit couloir. The snow depth varied, mostly blower powder with a few harder turns. Good fun but burnt the thighs failing to keep up with the straight-line machine Oskar. The bottom half of the couloir was in light cloud. The exit to para was easy until we hit the thicker cloud band below.
The high traverse to mid station out took over two hours. Everyone was following everyone else in the whiteout. The guide at the front eventually shouted up that he had lost his way and was skiing down to town as we were now too low. Oskar and I decided to sidestep back up and everyone else followed. Oskar's friend turned up and took over. More joined us and eventually someone confirmed the route. We had just dropped too low. A tricky bit of climbing on the third moraine involved no handholds and skis in the hand. I slipped as twice as foot holds gave way - I was VERY worried I won't lie. Next time ski's on the pack. I helped Oskar up leaning down and taking his poles and skis, held Oskar's foot as he leant down and took his friend's and then let down a multi sling rope to the guys behind us. They thanked us and we carried on to the final sidestep up to midstation.
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| Oskar attempting to get up before I took his gear |
I was shot from a 16 hour shift, no sleep and the heat from the effort on the traverse but agreed to go up and see what the weather was doing. Our plan to do Grand Envers / a normal variant fell through instantly when we saw the high cloud band from the bridge. Quick discussion and we decided to get down the Rond again as fast as possible, wanting to be off the traverse early. Much easier to not fall into a crevasse in the whiteout.
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| Clouds even higher |
Another lap of the same. I actually preferred it to the first as I had a little more confidence in my new skis. My thighs were on fire with the really quick pace we set on the ski and traverse. The latter was MUCH easier second time. Worse visibility to start but it was easy to follow our own tracks. We were back at the mid station just over an hour after getting to the arête and down in town by 2pm. I was completely spent but more importantly we'd got off the face early.
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| Already heavily tracked |
A great day but I was in work hangover mode; entirely exhausted and on a bit of a downer. The first traverse really put me off but I'm glad we went back up again. The entrance was no worse and the skiing fun. Getting my first two laps of the Rond this year in great (if tracked) snow was pretty epic. The night in and early bedtime felt totally justified.
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