Rognon Mk.15 or so

Tues 25th: Cosmiques was on the agenda again until we heard reports of a big slide and lots of traffic the day before. Instead Steve, Tom Tom, Robyn and I went up for another lap of Gros Rognon. For once the CDMB seemed to be on form... we were up the top before 9am - without queuing... No idea why seeing as it was a powder day.

Snow was incredible. It had settled a bit from the day before but was still really soft. Some aspects were wind-crusted but Rognon was sublime. We chose to hug closer to the rock than usual - more tracks but hopefully better snow. Still we got fresh tracks all the way down to the mogul-field. Big smiles. We saw three locals skier's right flying down the lip of the bowl that often slides - nothing. The snow was stable. From the mogul field I spied a complete lack of tracks down from the Requin hut traverse to the Seracs du Geant and persuaded the others to follow me down. Deep, soft, completely untracked, no rocks. Sublime. Took the train down for the first time in months and were down by 12:15.

'Retro' Steve

Photo of a photo of a photo...

Thin layer of cloud giving some spectacular views

Dropping in off the Requin traverse

Only tracks...

Our plan was for a single run to relax after yesterday. My right knee was feeling pretty tender and I didn't want to push it. But when the snows that good... no chance. We persuaded TomTom and Robyn to come back up with us. I decided to use my new touring setup to get used to the Dynafit bindings. Another excellent run. Still fresh everywhere. I lead off to the bowl we'd seen the locals on earlier. Great shout. Snow was excellent. Great skiing and some fantastic photos. I'd already spied a line further off the Requin traverse in case we made it up for another lap. Finding it proved tricky. The sun had uncovered rocks that were previously hidden making it hard to work out where I was from the photo. Almost (bit of an exaggeration) went off a huge cliff band... Another quick exit as we had to make the 3pm train down. Walked straight onto it. Win.

Steve's 'fat' skis left vs my 'skinny' skis

Robyn, Steve and Tom Tom following

Taking advantage of the new skis

Steve on the lip

Robyn dropping into the bowl

Tom Tom kicking up snow

Steve on the way down from Requin

Only tracks again on the second lap...

I nabbed lots of these photos off Tom Tom.

Winter's back - Le Tour provides

Mon 24th: Not skiing in a week - record of the season - left me gagging to do something interesting. Steve, Tom Tom and I were planning on doing Cosmique couloir should the weather allow. It didn't in the morning and we didn't want to wait around. So instead TT + I headed up to Le Tour with Robyn. May have been a good shout as apparently the Cosmiques had a big queue and and big slide (heard third hand).

We got up to a pretty dense whiteout and headed up to Tête de Balme, big surprise. Snow was really good with just a tiny bit of wind-crust in places. All three of us bounced down all the little rollers and tree wells, no breaks. I was determined to do something decent as it'd been so long since I'd skid. Chose a nice drop and hit it. First wipeout of the day. Almost made it but my DINs popped.

Low light snow

Tom Tom and Robyn killing it

Determined I tightened my DINs up to full (12 on Barons) and went for it again next lap. Let my core go but I rode out - pretty happy. 

Boom

Tom Tom's stitch

View from the chair

After this we just lapped the chair over non-stop for the next three hours. Met up with Aiden and some of the other boarders for a few runs. All of us were going for it, hitting everything of interest. There were a lot of falls all around. Definitely the most falls I've had in a long time. I blame the GoPro pole. I twisted both knees (not too badly) and ended up bending ANOTHER set of poles...

Sun poking through on our tracks below

Not again...

We headed back for a coffee and sitting down we realised we'd had enough. Better to call it before anything stupid happened. Powder, great company and another awesome day.

Cheers TomTom for the great photos.

Paddy's day / Man date

Mon 17th: Super late update: So I'd been working long hours for the last week with hardly any time off. Only got a quick evening climb in with Tom Tom (TT) on the Sunday. Paddy's rolled around and I was ready to go BIG. Robyn was away so I had TT all to myself. Started off with a lazy afternoon lapping the park. Nothing serious, just enjoying ourselves.

Gay arm

Weird camera angles

Tom Tom going lonnggggg

We started off on the beers at 1pm on the slope. After four hours we headed back to TT's for some apres, already a bit dehydrated from all the sun and beer (no water all day - big fail). Naturally it was a great idea to get on the straight rum (by 4:15) with a hearty chaser of many beers.

Tom Tom with Mont Blanc in the background

Awesome way to end the day

After another four hours of drinking we decided to head to Munster. Here my recollection gets very hazy. We turned up more drunk than everyone there which is quite a feat at 9pm on Paddy's day. All I remember is having a few burgers off the BBQ, many pints more and a MASSIVE hangover the next day. Truly awful. What a day though, so much fun.

Spring's here

10th-14th: No fresh snow for weeks and a high freezing level meant that all the snow is pretty much ruined. Not bothered about doing anything so just a nice chilled out week taking in the sun and heat.

Tues: Climbing and BBQ up at Gaillands with TomTom, Robyn, Sparky, Steve, Roberta, Dan (others joined later). Did a couple of nice routes to start with then TomTom and I went up a fun multipitch. Nice relaxed climbing, nothing too tricky. First time I've climbed properly outdoors. BBQ was amazing. Perfect way to spend four hours between shifts. No photos though unfortunately.

Weds: Headed up GM for a nice chilled out day organised by Tanzi with the them 'frocks and funk'. Naturally Dan and I chose frocks. Hot dogging the park in a dress was pretty weird. Threw some massive daffies / spread eagles. Not pretty. Got so many stares / shouts / laughs it was pretty funny, even the lifties were joining in. After a few falls messing around (none in the park), I started getting really cold so chucked my gear back on. I have no idea how, but apparently there were no proper photos of me doing this... next time maybe hah. LIES. Roberta found one...

Dan-ielle

Rich-ael

Happy days!

Thurs: Had a walk around town to check out the sales. Nothing decent at all. Took the bus to Argentiere then walked back. Took around two hours but I was in no rush.

Flegere home run looking pretty bare... haven't skied it once

Fri: Climbing at Gaillands again with Charlie and Jason for a few hours before work. Pushed myself a little bit more which was cool. Starting to get used to outdoors and find my rhythm. Really looking forward to doing some longer and more complex routes in the next few weeks.

Me leading

Jason belaying off his hangover

Charlie climbing

Jason, Charlie and Zac down below

Glacier du Mort

Thurs 6th: Got home on Weds to a text from Sunny asking if I wanted to do Glacier Mort early tomorrow. YES, yes I did. 8:45 at Flegere... cool. Woke up early feeling like death. Both my knees were aching from charging all the chopped up snow yesterday. Decided to at least get up and give it a go, could always turn back.

Waiting for Sunny in the MASSIVE Flegere lift queue left me even less enthusiastic. The others were already up so started the hike well ahead of us. Decided to bootpack instead of the faff of skinning. The bottom was pretty shit. I was following Sunny who was lighter and so I kept falling through the track. My socks / boots got soaked. A couple of skiers overtook me whilst I was stripping down half way up but I was around them and past another load of people on the bootpack. Got to the top and met the others; Jon, Julia, Mike, Steven, Maya and Matt.

After a quick turn around we were straight on to the traverse. Couldn't be bothered to gear back up. Big mistake. Dug a tip whilst not paying attention and frontflipped with only a t-shirt on. Cold... Got started on the second couloir up to the ridge. Again I was sinking in a lot until I started climbing the refrozen debris from the wet slide the day before. To my surprise I powered up without tiring and Sunny and I reached the top right after Matt. Few (naked) photos and general laughs then we headed up the final climb to pointe Alphonse Favre.

Slight nudity

Final scramble to the top

After group photos Sunny, Matt and I decided to break away. A group of eight is way too big to enjoy the decent properly and the others wanted to have lunch up the top. We dropped in, skiing the two steep sections at the top carefully. Then we went for it. One massive pitch took us almost to the bottom, all of us cheering the awesome snow. Another short pitch and we were down on the traverse. Sure the downhill was over soon, but man was it gooooood.

Sunny with the first Col in the background

Mont Blanc poking over the Aiguilles Rouges

Group shot

The descent

Bus, another bus, shower, beers at Monkey and Munster. Perfect day.

Two days in La Clusaz

So if anyone asks me I'll say that La Clusaz is definitely the most beautiful resort I've been / drive to. Our family friends have a two bedroom flat out in La Clusaz that once a year for my childhood we'd cram both families in. This is where I learnt to ski (and also snowboard in the dark teenage years) so understandably it has a pretty big place in my heart. By extension I guess it played a big part in my being in Chamonix. Not much to live up to... I Popped over for two days to see my parents and our family friends the Howards to celebrate Ruth's birthday.

Merdassier - where I learnt to ski

Aiguille

View from the flat

Tues 4th: First day the visibility was awful, but as I was only there for two days we headed up to the other side of the resort to La Balme. Yeah, the one made famous by Candide Thovex. That one. We did a few laps of various runs on the way there, a few tree runs and then a couple of laps up the top of Balme. For the most part we couldn't see a thing but the snow was great. Highlight was traversing off Lapiaz into a big bowl of hardly tracked, although slightly windcrusted, powder. Good day but a bit of a shame about the visibility.

In the evening we went out for a proper Savoyard dinner to celebrate Ruth's birthday. Who doesn't love meat cooked on a stone. Amazing meal.

Gorgeous

Birthday tart

Weds 5th: Woke up to a glorious day. Perfectly clear. Bullied my parents into getting up (how the tables have turned) and we were on the slopes by 9. It was a good choice as now there was visibility all the powder was obvious and so the skiing was excellent. I was determined to go back to Balme now there was visibility so we made our way over again, stopping to do a few of the steeper runs of my childhood en route. They didn't have quite the edge anymore... I lead my parents off the back on some weird traverse I'd vaguely spotted the day before. Oops.

We got to Balme and I was determined to have a bit of fun. I wiped out first run on the moguled runout off a drop I'd eyed up the day before. Then after a great lap below the chair with my dad I went off on my own for two fast and playful runs. Then landed the same drop although the brutal moguls punished my knees. I finished by doing a couple of hikes. For less than 2 minutes hike there was a mini, completely untracked, Hotel Face. Steep, deep and untracked with some rock bands to play with. Bear in mind this was three days after a snowfall... Amazing way to end.

Right side of Balme

The drop

Main bowl, Hotel-esque Face circled

Playing about down the main face

Fresh tracks baby

Making the most of the terrain

My advice? GO TO BALME. The terrain is awesome. To get there take the Col des Aravis in the day to take in the stunning views La Clusaz has to offer.