Skiing Mont Blanc

Summer has really flown by in the Alps this year and Chamonix has been a great place to have some skiing and climbing adventures. The skiing highlight was a descent (and ascent) of the highest peak in Western Europe back at the start of August. The highest peak in all of Europe, by the way, is Mount Elbrus in the Russian Caucasus near to the Georgian border.

As happens often with the best adventures I was invited on the trip at the last minute - the day before we set off - to make up a 3 man team with Benoit and Denis. My French is still not great, although it is improving, and Denis's English is at about the same level so Benoit had to act as translator a lot of the time.

Day one was the easy day - we caught the last lift of the day up the Aiguille du Midi at 6pm, then had a pleasant ski down to our campsite at the Col du Midi. There were ten or fifteen tents there already as this is a popular spot in high season. Weaving through tents on skis was a new experience for me. Then tent up, cooking and sleeping. Denis had opted to spend the night in the more expensive luxury of the Cosmiques Refuge, so we had a quick discussion of our starting time before he departed to warmth and a waiting cooked meal. We decided on a relatively late 4am start to allow the snow time to soften before our descent.

Camping below the Midi

Day two was the hard day we had to climb from 3500m to 4800m. I hadn't been that high before so I wasn't one hundred percent sure how my body was going to cope with the altitude. We started with a skate across the flat to the foot of Mont Blanc du Tacul where we put our skins on and began to climb. Just before the first bergschrund we switched to crampons and strapped the skis to our sacks. It started getting light near the top of the face of the Tacul, so we had a fantastic vantage point for the sunrise. At the shoulder Mt Blanc du Tacul we put skis on and enjoyed our first few turns of the day across Col Maudit and down to below Col du Mt Maudit. From here is the steepest climb of the ascent up to the col, and something of a bottleneck with the parties ahead of us following a line of fixed ropes. Avoiding the fixed ropes to the right we made faster progress and from the col is an easy contour across to the Col de la Brenva.

Col de la Brenva

Looking up to the summit - 500m vertical to go

From here is the long last slog up the summit slopes. The end is in sight but it feels like it lasts forever. There is nothing technically difficult but it is a test of fitness and acclimatisation. The summit itself is disappointingly flat - there is a rounded ridgeline and it is difficult to be sure where the highest point actually is. We went along the ridge in both directions a little way just to make sure we had covered the true summit. Suddenly, after seeing other parties ahead of and behind us all the way up there was nobody around to take a photograph of the three of us, so we had to make do with separate pictures.

Benoit on the summit

Denis and myself on the summit

After taking in the view we set off skiing down the North Face, a little to the (skier's) left of the ascent route so we had the slope to ourselves. The snow was surprisingly good - light and powdery despite it being windy enough that our tracks were soon filled in behind us. After a few hundred meters we had to traverse right to rejoin the track unless we wanted an extra ascent. From Col de la Brenva we decided to climb Mont Maudit as it was still early enough in the day. This gave us a second 4000m summit as a bonus tick, and also gave us the most challenging skiing of the day.

Benoit dropping in on Mt. Maudit

The North Face of Mont Maudit had not softened at all, and its upper section was the steepest of the day, so a few very cautious turns were called for on hard packed snow. The lower section was more powdery and we could have a bit more fun, being careful of the crevasses. Next was around half an hour of skinning back to the Shoulder of Mt. Blanc du Tacul and the final ski of the day. This was the part where we could leave tracks visible from the lift station, and although the snow was a little heavier with the afternoon sun and the altitude dropping below 4000m it was still good skiing.

All that remained was to pack up the campsite and make the final climb up to the cable car station where we had the chance to look back up at our tracks whilst waiting for the lift. Not a bad day's skiing for the start of August.

Three Cols Tour (Les Trois Cols)

Following on from the EMS course mentioned in the last post, we have to log a number of days ski touring before taking the exam course. My first tour following the course was the 3 Cols route in the Chamonix valley. This starts from the Grand Montets cable car (or the Argentiere refuge), descends to cross the Argentiere glacier before climbing to the Col du Chardonnet, a rappel down and a ski and skin lead to the Fenetre du Saleina and Col Superior du Tour, before skiing down to Le Tour village. This was a full day out, with 1200m of ascent and some really spectacular scenery. Thanks to Sandra for a great day.

Mont Blanc Du Tacul (nearly)

The last trip in Chamonix was planned to be an ascent of Mont Blanc du Tacul - a subsidiary peak of Mont Blanc and a 4000m mountain in its own right. Unfortunately we left it too late booking the cable car and had to get the 9am rather than the 8am lift. Next there was a slow moving queue of people doing the Valleé Blanche on the knife edge ridge out of the top station, so it was after 10 o'clock by the time we actually started the climb up.

We knew that we had to be on the way down by 1pm, as the snow bridges on glaciers lower down would be weakening in the warm weather. In particular an area known as the Salle a Manger* was reported to have several weak snow bridges. We would have to cross these on our descent of the Valleé Blanche after the climb. Unfortunately we were still several hundred vertical metres short of the summit by one, so reluctantly switched crampons for skis and headed down. Near the end of the descent we came across a lake which had formed on the glacier from melting ice. It was a remarkable shade of blue, with black caves visible in the depths below a few floating icebergs. Photos from the day are posted below.

*Salle a Manger is French for Dining room, as this is an area where many people stop to eat their packed lunches, often in unwise places, on the descent. A lot of people seem oblivious to the dangers of glaciers and the high mountain environment, perhaps because the skiing is not too demanding and there are plenty of other people about. However a number of people have been killed on the Valleé Blanche descent this year, often through ignoring their guide's advice. It is quite frightening to see people sitting beneath creaking seracs and loaded avalanche prone slopes, or taking their skis off while wandering about crevasse zones.

The queue on the ridge

Ian on the climb

A lake formed in the glacier on the way down

Aguille Crochues

This time I have some photos from the other side of the Chamonix valley - we hiked to the Aguille Crochues from the Flegere and Index lifts via Lac Blanc. At 2837m it is not a high peak in the region, but it is a peak nontheless and none of my previous tours have taken in an Alpine summit. We were hoping for some spring corn skiing back down, but it was a little late in the day so we had to be content with untracked but heavy snow.

Apologies to those of you who have previously commented positively on the ski tips posts - there will be more of those in the near future. At the moment I'm afraid I've been having too much fun skiing, touring and having an end of season holiday.

The Aguille Crochues on the way up

Ian on the way down

The Aguille Crochues from near the lift station - the peak in the middle of the skyline - we ascended behind the skyline ridge.

Col D'Argentiere

Seeing as I'm on holiday at the moment, here is another post full of photos and not many words. Yesterday we skinned up to the Col D'Argentiere and skied back down. Just under 1000 metres up, and 2500 metres down to the valley.

The first picuture shows our objective - the col on the skyline just right of center

The last push

The view from the top

Chamonix Photos

We have finally found some Internet access in Austria, so I have an hour to post and to check my email before the ticket runs out. We have had a great few days' training and my GS skiing has definately come on with some good coaching. We are in St Anton now with the lifts shut due to bad weather and tomorrow's Eurotest postponed by at least a day.

I will let you know how the Eurotest goes, if and when it happens. In the meantime I will leave you with those photos from Chamonix on Wednesday. We started at the Grand Montets, took the Pente Pisteurs (Pisteur's Slope) towards the Argentiere Glacier. Skinned up to the Col du Passant and skied down to Le Tour. A good but fairly popular short tour, however we did find some fresh lines.

This is me with the Grand Montets cable car station and the way down the Pente Pisteurs in the background.

And this is Ian and the way ahead up to the Col de Passant

Ian on the way down.

And this is our route down to Le Tour (taken from the Cafe at the bottom). We came down to the left of the rocky ridge on the skyline in the centre of the picture. You might be able to make out the sheer number of tracks down a slope that is a two - three hour walk in. This was the first day after a snowstorm so all these tracks were made that day. Back in Andorra you could hike two hours and find fresh tracks days or weeks after a snowfall.