"Welcome to Winter 2015"

Thurs 15th: Brevent - 30+cm fresh powder (wind affected off the Cornu)

Tricky decision where to go with all the new snow and low visibility. GM top in limbo, Flegere info at 9:30, Le Tour closed and Brevent top open for pedestrians. Eventually chose Brevent... And what followed was one of (/the?) best days I've ever had.

Oscar was running late so I did a few runs on my own. Only a handful of people had beaten me up the mountain so I skied down in soft powder to Cornu... which was open early. What? Dropped straight off the back of Cornu skier's right into untracked but heavily wind affected powder. Good fun opening up a bit, fighting the snow. Continued straight underneath the Charlanon chair to deep, soft powder. Clearly anything East facing had dodged the violent winds and at this point I was praying that the top bin would open... Another quick Charlanon then back to Cornu.

Moody weather to begin with

I'd eyed up the couloir furthest skier's left under the chair earlier, but decided it could wait. It was still untracked... Over the crest I see a boarder cruising towards it, clearly with the same thought. I headed down second. The coverage was good, snow pretty wind affected and I released a small amount putting in some jump turns before opening up on the slope below. Met up with Oscar and Greg for another few laps skier's left off the back of Cornu in more wind affected snow. Dug a tip on the landing jumping off a rock and catapulted down. Snow everywhere, but funny. At the bottom we heard some people talking about top bin opening at 11... So up we headed to queue.

Arrived at 10:50 to Retro Steve's powder goat face greeting and no queue... Seriously what was going on? At 11 they opened the lift. On time... The first lift was half full with tourists so only half of the people waiting got on. Steve was eying up the same lines so we partnered up for the first time this season. We dropped into a short couloir skier's left of the main bowl. The snow was sublime. You would never have known the wind had been howling for days. We continued hardly stopping, not crossing a single track and whooping with delight then walked straight onto the next lift. By this time the sun had broken through.

Second lap we took the couloir to looker's right of Frison-Roche that exits onto the main face. As I was entering the couloir the same boarder from before rocked up behind us - 1:1 sir. We continued hard skier's right of all the tracks for another untouched descent.

Steve retroing it up

We headed back up in agreement to put the track in for Hotel face as no one had skied it yet. We made it 2/3s of the way before two guys flew past us. Shit. So close. To our amazement, and incredulous delight, they dropped into the gully closest to the face... We had the whole of Hotel face to ourselves. Steep, deep and completely untouched. Sublime. One of those moments you dream of.

Two guys rushing past only to drop into the main bowl

First.

I think Steve turns more...

Knowing it would get skied fast now there were tracks we bombed it back up and after a quick traverse dropped in skier's left. We found a nice entry and a shaded gully. Lower down we hit a handful of tracks but there was plenty to go around. Steve found a nice line with a nasty entry and carved a nice line.

Steve's line lookers right
Mine over the features

I'd planned to go home after this run as I had work but I couldn't resists another cheeky lap. We rushed up and were the last two onto the top lift. Another lap of the same, following Steve's line from the last run. The snow conditions up high had changed slightly with the wind and our tracks had filled in. The bottom was still soft. I did a mini tomahawk up high, no idea how, again pretty funny.

Navigating the rocks to get back in to Steve's line

Ran home and made it to work just in time. As close to a perfect day as I I've had in Cham. Not the best snow (how can you beat the midi?) but there was no effort/waiting. It even got the powder goat seal of approval.

Powder goat finally satisfied

High wind and low vis up GM

Weds 14th: Grand Montets - 20cm fresh + more coming (wind affected up high)

Got up late to go join Arvid, Rasmus, Lukas and Oscar up GM. Whilst waiting I went for a quick lap up the Bochard. The visibility up top was absolutely dire. Skied down having little to no clue what I was skiing on. Eventually it opened up and I could see a few metres in front of me.

Met the others and we popped up the Hearse. We promptly lost Arvid and Rasmus in the whiteout. The snow was pretty good skier's right but we were all on edge because of the crazy amount of virtually invisible rocks. We decided to get to the trees so took the Marmottons lift (slowest of all time). The bowl under Tabé was good fun, but the lift back up was balticly cold and windy. To get out of the wind we blitzed down to the bottom station to see what the pistes were like - actually pretty good fun.

Good visibility

Discussing the Plan Joran's many failings

The visibility finally opened up for a short time

The plan Joran was - of course - closed so we queued up for Lognan. We later found out that Arvid and Rasmus were stuck in it for 40mins. At the top we headed back to Tabé and lapped it. We bumped into Arvid and Rasmus again and then lapped the trees and bowl between the gully and the park. The snow was good and so we did multiple laps until eventually getting too bored and cold. A quick leg burner down and we were on the bus. Fun to get up but the visibility ruined it a bit.

Rock dodging Hotel Face

Mon 12th: Headed to Brevent with Oscar, Rasmus and Arvid. A 1min walk to the Brevent station is pretty damn incredible considering the effort it usually takes to get anywhere in Chamonix. I'll definitely be spending a lot of time there when the snow comes.

We headed straight up to the top. It had been open Sunday afternoon and hotel face had tracks in but not nearly as many as I expected. The first traverse was painfully slow as it was Arvid's first time doing it on a board. This started many anti-boarding jokes. In fairness though after learning the route he was way faster. We dropped in skier's right to find great soft snow with the frequent sound of scraping ice below. It was chopped in the narrower parts but excellent where it widened out. The snow at the bottom was awesome once you dodged the rocks; deep and soft. There were even some features to hit.

Snowboarders on traverses... eurgghh

The second run Oscar and I traversed far skier's right. There was only one track in it but the snow was much heavier and shallower with rocks poking through everywhere. Amazing how much difference a tiny aspect change can make. Third and fourth laps were on the same area as the first. By this time the first route was bare in places and chopped in others. I was confident so started dodging rocks to the sides where no one else had skied yet. Good fun and deep snow all over.

Posterboy Arvid

Oscar ready to drop in

Me messing about lower down (taken by Rasmus)

For our final lap we headed up the boot-pack and mini scramble to enter far skier's left. The top was really deep and soft changing to heavier snow on the aspects the sun had reached earlier in the day. There still weren't many tracks which made for nice turns the whole way down eventually joining the red Cornu piste.

The bootpack (taken by Arvid)

Bouldering on the way up

Up there as one of (the?) best days of the year. Nice to ski something a bit challenging and find some good snow.

NB. Oscar also keeps a blog called Down and Up in Swedish. CLICK HERE.

Rocks, falls and variable powder on a hangover

Sun 11th: Another lie in... I'm getting lazy. The storm blew itself out by 11am so Rasmus and
I headed up to GM to check out the fresh snow. Straight up Bochard and into skier's right of Lavancher. There was tons of untracked snow to be had but the depth varied hugely and was often impossible to gauge. After a few amazing turns there would be a patch of bulletproof and then another set of great turns. Still had great fun picking our way down, rock dodging and searching for the deep snow.

The Dru and the Verte en route to GM

After another quick lap of the same we decided to take a look at the bowls below the Hearse chair. It was a combination of; deep soft powder, heavily wind crusted powder, bulletproof and rock with virtually no ability to guess which you were going to get the next turn. Still found some really good lines skier's left of the chair and a nice soft exit to the Marmottons piste.

At the bottom we waited for Lukas for a while (slacker). At this point the weather started coming in and the temperature dropped massively. Another quick lap of the hearse slightly skier's right of the chair found some really good snow... Until I clipped a rock a took a HEAVY fall onto my face in some solid snow leaving me dazed and with a little cut on my chin. Rasmus and Lukas were pretty surprised I got up so fast as it was quite a big one. Lucky not to be worse and very lucky that I didn't fall onto my already broken rib.

Figuring that the snow had been better in Lavancher we headed back up Bochard and took a line directly down the middle, dodging all the rocks on the shoulder. Fresh tracks in (mostly) good snow, despite it being pretty late. Lower down we were dropping some rocks etc when I clipped yet another shark fin rock and wiped out again... Decided that enough was enough and that I was heading down before I injured myself badly. The others stayed out for a few more.

Weather moving back in

Definitely worth going up as I had a great few hours but the rocks soured it slightly. That said with another snow fall Lavencher will be amazing. I can't wait...

Sleep is for the weak

Fri 9th: Up at 3am for work after a solid three hour sleep, got back at 7:15. Instead of getting a cheeky nap I serviced and waxed my skis. Ouch.

Picked Oscar up en route to Flegere for a tour. The original plan was Col de Beaugent but two of the others backed out. With only a 30m rope we had to change routes deciding on the Col above Index. As we got up the weather looked ominous with heavy wind and low visibility. We didn't fancy navigating the crevasses so we skinned up to Floria and towards Glacier du Mort.

Mer de Glace looking dirty and bare

When we reached the first col above Floria it was clear that the back side of the Aiguilles Rouges had been blasted by wind so we just decided to get out of there quickly. Keeping a safe distance apart we skied down and skinned up Col de Berard, the fastest exit. We dropped lower to dodge the heavily loaded windslab, instead skinning on the boilerplate.

Everyone sheltering from the wind to transition

Upon reaching the Col we were greeted by wind. A LOT of wind. Warm hands were frozen in seconds as we removed skins and changed to ski mode. As soon as we dropped off the Col it instantly dropped down. Keeping a safe distance apart we skied down quickly. I took one pretty big fall when I either clipped a rock or some crust. My ski just about released though thank god.

A brief lul in the wind at the Col

The exit was better than I expected but we still had to spend a large portion of it walking. The day was nothing special and the snow was abject but it was just great to be up in the mountains. The bonus is at no point was I remotely tired. I'm noticeably fitter and skiing much better than at the start of last season so hopefully some big tours/lines are on the cards...

Long trek out

Oscar combat skiing

Fjording dem rivers

Oscars skin clip / eating utensil. Genius 

Technical snowboarding

Tue 6th: Called Oscar early and we decided to have a lazy day. Skipping first lifts for the first time in ages was awesome, actually had a lie in. Figured I'd head up Brevent for a few hours. Wasn't bothered about skiing so borrowed Arvid's rock board and snowboarded for the first time in 6 years. I've boarded quite a lot before but it's been so long it was still pretty strange. I was also doing it in ski boots and was getting a lot of weird looks and comments. I christened it technical snowboarding.

Dynafits on a board. Anti-steeze

Just had a day of messing about with nothing too taxing. Dropped straight off the back of Cornu and the snow was really good, I was almost sad I didn't bring my skis up (especially as there were tracks in hotel face). Headed over to Flegere, met the others and lapped Index a few times. Snow was good and chalky but nothing special. Some of the off-piste was similar but there were rocks everywhere (expected). I picked up boarding again pretty quickly. The low point was putting a hard turn in over a roller on the first run into what turned out to be boilerplate. Broke a rib. It hurts.

Playa...

Good lazy day with some great views and company

Fighting the queues at GM

Mon 5th: Missed the early bus as I'd forgotten my backpack, skills. No worries, Arvid and Oscar were late too. Arvid had even tried to go to Les Houches. Got the 8:20 so arrived to a big-ish queue at GM. The others were pushing for Plan Joran but I flat out refused after yesterday's farce. Lucky I did as they never opened... We made the third or fourth bin.

We got up to find everyone in front was in the top bin queue. Oh well. I guess it really is the only thing in condition at the moment with the lack of snow. We reserved the first available (12:55pm) and queued up. Eventually we got up and discussed options. I chose first - the face. We made our way down carefully knowing that the snowbridges are pretty thin at the moment. The conditions were good but the mid section had sections of bulletproof interspersed between wind affected powder which looked identical. The bowls below were awesome - untouched. Even Canadian bowl had an edge of powder thanks to the wind. We were all pleasantly surprised with the conditions.

After a long second queue it was Oscar's turn to choose. We dropped left and made for the col, hugging the rognon instead of going over. The snow higher up was much better than the front. As we descended it got really patchy, the complete inverse to our first run. Had some fun dodging through people in narrow couloirs and made our way down.

We had an hour before our reservation so we took a glance at Lavancher. Easily as good as yesterday and still snow to be had. Quick lunch then back up. Arvid decided on the face again. It was by far the best run. The wind had covered both our tracks and the icy sections. Same for the bowls below. Shouts of delight and long pitches without stopping. Arvid's "best of the season so far" although he's been a bit unlucky. So good that we decided we couldn't stop without one last one...

Same again. Didn't live up to the third lap but pretyy close. Got down to mid station with legs burning and flew down Pierre a Ric with little to no control (it had refrozen from the day before's slush). Fantastic day and snow with the good company helping with the long queues.