(Probably) the last VB of the season

Thurs 9th: Gros Rognon - heavy fresh snow

Lukas and I got up early doors again and headed up early after a storm to check out the Cosmiques. Waited a good long time at the Midi discussing whether it was worth it / whether to turn back as there hadn't been much snow. Eventually we decided to go for it and skied down the arête - a first for both of us. Upon arrival it was pretty clear that the top of the couloir was awful and it was unclear if it got better. Whilst we spent ages discussing it four french guys showed up. They decided to ski it anyway as they were en route to the Mulets hut. We backed off and skied over to Rognon where we bumped into John, the only skier on the Rognon route who happily joined us.

No Cosmiques sadface

Knowing it was probably our last ski to Montenvers we took it slowly, enjoying the fresh uniform slightly temperature affected powder and taking plenty of photos. We saw the remnants of monster slides everywhere from last Saturday. Absolutely crazy big - the entire zone skier's left of Rognon had slid to the start of the traverse. We continued down happily and took a low traverse and boot pack to the Requin hut, stopped for a snack and to discuss our exit. We decided to scout the requin exit before committing - a good choice as it looked incredibly bare and the temperatures were too high to be safe. We turned back and took a high traverse across salle a manger, the entrance to which had actually been filled in by another monstrous avalanche a few days before. A hasty crossing with large gaps between and we were out.

Taken by John Mallery

Taken by John Mallery

The exit took forever but was pretty fun. Lots of combat skiing/ sidestepping/ slipping over glacier scree / ice / patches of gluey snow. John took his skis off once or twice where safe but Lukas and I just took the pain. Another 3+km of skiing on ice, a quick walk, another few km of ice skiing, a few core shots, a 20 min walk and then climbing the ladders back up to Montenvers. Great fun in terms of adventure but not one to repeat. In the end I only took one massive core shot but I was on my rock skis anyway so who cares...

Big ol' slide

Lakes forming in the salle a manger

Getting pretty bad...

Worse...