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.

EMS - Mountain Safety Training

In the past I have mentioned the Eurotest and how it can be a major hurdle for ski instructors wanting to work in France. The French have also imposed a second test - the Eurosecurity - which is now part of the top level qualifications for Eurogroup countries including France, Italy, Austria and the UK. Whilst less known and for most people less difficult than the Eurotest the Eurosecurity course is a lot more useful and practical for working ski instructors. The idea is to achieve a minimum standard of mountain safety awareness so that clients can be confident that a top level qualified instructor is competent to take them off piste safely.

I have just attended the training part of the Eurosecurity or EMS (European Mountain Safety) as it is named in the British system. The second part will be a three day examination next winter in La Grave. The photo above is from the first day of the course, ascending the Col des Crochues in the Chamonix Aiguilles Rouge range.

The second and third days of the course took us to the region around the Grand St. Bernard Pass which links Switzerland and Italy (above - setting off from the Super St. Bernard car park; below - arriving at the St. Bernard Monastery where we spent the night.)

Above - St Bernard Pass. Below - Day 3, ski touring in Italy and Switzerland

Overall I have to say that this was one of the best of the many ski instructor courses I have done. It was definitely one of the most enjoyable, partly because there was no exam - not until next year anyway - and partly because we got to explore a lot more of the mountains than on most courses. It was also a very useful course. I often ski off piste with clients in a fairly limited way, within the remit of my current ISIA Mountain Safety qualification i.e. within the ski area, close to marked runs, accessible from ski lifts.
   "Can we go off-piste?" is a common question from my more advanced groups whilst "Can we learn to race?" is something I almost never hear. However skiing off piste entails all the risks of the mountain environment - avalanches, navigation hazards, rocks, cliffs, trees etc. so it is important for the instructor to be aware of the risks and to work within the remit of their qualifications to minimise them. An instructor who has passed the Eurosecurity is then qualified to take clients off piste or ski-touring on non-glaciated terrain for up to one day. For trips beyond the remit of this qualification the client would have to book a UIAGM/IFAMG qualified High Mountain Guide.

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.