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Joe looking across to the Dent du Geant and some of our possible lines of decent on a short tour from the Aiguille du Midi across to the Helbronner.
With the sun shining and no in-valley freshies, it was time to head out and about. After a couple of years of variable conditions I think that Joe has timed his trips well this year - having had the best of the previous fresh snow he was also around for a couple of good ski tours. |
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I love the skin across to Helbronner - pretty cruisey going in some fantastic surroundings. |
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With Karl and Norma held up a couple of cabins behind us, Joe and I had time to skin over for a nosey at the entry of the Glacier de Toule on the Italian border. A great ski option, but unfortunately not enough time to do it this day.
Joe posing with Courmayeur behind - pretty cool to start and finish a tour in France and dipping into Italy on the way. |
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We want our coffee!! Not a bad spot to have to hang around for a couple of slackers. |
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But we didn't have to wait long.
Karl and Norma just about reel us in - especially as they decided to check out the Toule Glacier as well! You can see Karl is checking out some options to his left - always full of good ideas! |
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After a decent Italian coffee, it was time for a quick traverse, five minute boot-pack and our ski home.
Its great to be able to look back towards the Midi and some of the different routes down. |
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I've rarely had bad conditions coming off the Italian side - not often powder, but enjoyable non the less. |
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Karl at the top of the steepest pitch. Can't make it out in this shot, but there was a boot pack up the couloir in front of Karl - I believe there's some 'interesting' skiing on the other side... |
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The main skiing done with and it was time to negotiate our way along the side of the Seracs du Geant. The majority of routes out of the upper section of the Vallee Blanche come out skier's left of the seracs - usually resulting in a lot of bumpy nastiness. It was nice to have a relatively smooth exit skier's right. |
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Jump forward a day and time for another stroll in the sun. A favourite of mine is heading into the Berrard valley. Joe just finishing the climb to the Col des Crochues above the Flegere area. Its fifty fifty whether to boot-pack or skin up here - I usually try to skin (good practice!!). |
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After a quick traverse part way round the Combe de la Balme and its time for a first - having done a few other routes into the Berrard I've had the Glacier du Mort on the list for a while. Quite a long steep boot-pack this one. |
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But with plenty to look at you don't mind stopping for a breather. Probably a third of the way up here, looking back towards the Col des Crochues. |
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The climb goes on... |
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...as do the fantastic views - I love seeing familiar peaks from different perspectives and possible future descents - Mont Blanc in the background and I believe the wide snowy area running down diagonally right from centre of the shot is the Glacier de la Floria. |
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Not far now - there's almost a false summit to the climb - but to make the best entry onto the Mort you need to finish on the Point Alphonse Favre. Way down below Joe is the Berrard valley and some of the other routes I've dropped down towards Le Buet village. |
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Karl on the Pointe. Using train times and work as an excuse, we shied away from continuing on up to the Aiguille du Belvedere behind. |
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Plenty of people had been in before us and the ski down was a real mixed bag. Karl traversing right out, trying to find the best conditions - a game we played most of the way down unfortunately. |
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A couple of people had told me about the amount of avalanche debris in the valley, but I was surprised at just how many avalanches had triggered after the last snow. This was just one of many impressive slides we had to scoot round on the final ski out to Le Buet. |
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The ski out is usually a fairly interesting affair, but with the debris and fairly thin cover low down, it was a bit of a pain. Depending on which line you end up on, it can be quite tricky avoiding a dip in the stream - a friend of a friend spending ten minutes waist deep a couple of day's later! |
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Job done and with a few minutes till the train, a quick shandy was in order. |
