Winter Returns

Nipped out for a quick ski with Pete Benson today, unfortunately the weather came in a lot earlier than forecast so we didn't get to see much.  We skinned up Lurcher's Gully and over to the March  Burn from where we dropped down to the Lairig Ghru.  We'd intended to head up onto Braeriach and find some gullies to ski but with the weather rapidly deteriorating we took a rising traverse back to the top of Lurcher's and back down to the car.  Not the best ski ever but good to get out and stretch the legs.

Up high there is a lot of snow being transported by the easterly winds we're getting at the moment which will be loading a lot of slopes and giving a very high avalanche danger.  But back at the car park there was very little wind and a lot of snow falling.  Could be some good skiing low down over the next few days.

Not the best skiing in the world, an inch of fresh on top of bullet hard neve...

Ski touring Cairngorm style

Location, Location, Location

I love the spring time in Chamonix, it’s relatively quiet around the valley, the weather, more often than not, is settled, seasonal work is finished and the options for playing are endless. In the last five days I’ve had four very different days out climbing.

Monday was a big mixed alpine line on a 4000m peak (see previous post ‘Too Late To Say I’m Sorry’). Tuesday ended up as a forced rest day due to not been fit enough for the previous day! Wednesday and we made the steep walk up to Bionassay crag just above Saint Gervais for an afternoon of steep limestone bolt clipping, well trying to anyway, just like the legs weren’t strong enough for a big alpine day the arms definitely aren’t strong enough for Bionassay just yet.

Thursday Colin and I headed up the Midi with skis and rock boots for some alpine granite crack climbing. A quick ski down to the base of the Contamine route on Point Lachenal and you can quite literally step out of your bindings and on to 250m of perfect warm sunny rock (the perfect way to approach a climb??) before abseiling back to the skis. Then a good spring ski back to the Montenvers train station and a late lunch in Chamonix. Friday was multi pitch climbing on the big limestone cliffs of Balme down in the Arve valley. Jonny and I did a route called ‘Le vieux de la montagne’, 7 pitches of technical slabs and steep walls on good quality limestone.

Easy access alpine rock climbing

Colin high on the Contamine Route, Point Lachenal

Top of the Contamine route before a quick abseil down the route and a good spring ski back to the valley

Late season snow

Spring made a brief appearance over here in mid March but for the last couple of weeks winter definitely had a good go at returning. Waking up a couple of mornings to an unexpected 5 inches of snow in the town and skiing over half a meter of fresh powder up high. I’m still to swing a tool in the mountains this season but to make up for it there have been a few pretty sweet days on the skis making the most of the late season powder.

Here's a few shots from the last few weeks...

Paul skinning up below the Dent de Géant to access the West Couloir of the AiguillesMarbrées

Enjoying perfect spring snow on the Marbrées

Escaping the Easter crowds of Chamonix down in the Vanoise, skinning up to the Col du Genepie

Over a 1000m's of fresh tracks skiing down from the Col du Genepi with not another person in sight.

Pete and Nick skiing off the Midi after the latest storm

Enjoying 60cm of fresh off the Midi

North couloir of the Capucin

The North couloir of the Capucin off the Col du Tacul is one of the many classic moderate couloirs around the Mont Blanc massif. Easily accessed off the Midi by a quick ski down the Vallee Blanche to the bottom of the Geant Icefall and then a 900m skin up the Glacier des Periades. A final boot up a couloir leads to the Col du Tacul and a view down the line to the Leschaux Glacier 1000m below.

Guy skinning up towards the Col du Tacul (centre of picture)

The final boot pack up to the Col, Mont Blanc in the background

Three 30m abseils from the col gets you over the rocky ground to the remaining 250m of the 48^o couloir. It was the first time on anything relatively steep for me this season so rather than getting straight into the turns it was a bit more like skis on, stand there, stand there some more, side slip a couple of meters and eventually put the first turn in...

Guy contemplating his first turn

Once over the bergshrund and onto the lower angled Capucin Glacier we'd hoped for nice powder and big fast turns. Unfortunately like everywhere else in the Mont Blanc massif at the moment the slopes had been hammered by the strong winds over the last few weeks so hard wind blown snow lead down to an exit onto the Leschaux Glacier.

Evening sun on the Cosmiques

Sat back in the flat, cup of tea in hand, after a nice afternoon run down the Petite Envers it seemed a bit early to be calling it a day on my last day off for the week. A few quick phone calls resulted in a sprint in ski boots back to the Midi to catch the 4'oclock and last cable car of the day with team Benson.

It was 5 o’clock by the time we were rapping into the Cosmiques Couloir for a quick lap in the evening sun. The snow was good, not amazing but facing west the light was stunning by this time. Amazing powder on the slopes below the north face of the Aiguille du Midi in the setting sun brought us out at the Mont Blanc tunnel entrance to a waiting taxi courtesy of Mrs B.

Andy rapping into the Cosmiques Couloir

Looking west from the couloir

The Bensons enjoying creamy powder below the Aiguille du Midi

The hard work begins

After a number of years umming and ahhing last year I put an application into the British Mountain Guides, which thankfully, was accepted. Things started off last September with the Rock Induction day at Tremadog followed by two days of initial training on single and multi pitch climbing guiding as well as a full day on rescue techniques.

Carrying on this winter we had two weeks based in the Alps. The first a three day ski technique course in Leysin, Switzerland with top swiss ski instructors working on personal ski technique. This followed by the ski induction day, like the rock induction a chance for the training committee to assess and make sure your skiing standard is at an acceptable level to start the training and as with the rock we all passed. Finishing off the week was the cascade guiding training day, looking at all aspects of safety, client care and coaching methods involved in continental ice climbing guiding.

Not coming from an instructional back ground it’s all very new to me and there’s a lot to take on all at once. Running up 1000m alpine north faces is seeming quite simple now compared to looking after two clients, keeping the ropes organised and efficient belay stance management. Maybe I could pass some rope management skills onto Nick...

Nick trying to sort the ropes out on the North Face of the Droites

The last of the two weeks was the avalanche course based down in La Grave. A mixture of class room based sessions and time spent out on the hill digging snow profiles, looking at stability, recording data, discussing safe travel through avalanche terrain whilst getting a few good turns in ourselves. We also had an intensive training session on transceiver search method. It was quite interesting and scary to see how unorganised six fairly competent people are when thrown into an unexpected emergency situation! Modern transceivers are getting very clever but as was discovered they still don’t do the job for you, to be efficient you really need to know how your transceiver works and not just relying on the arrows pointing you in the right direction.

Andy Nelson and Steve Jones looking at a full depth snow profile

Next up is the winter induction day at the end of February up in the Cairngorms, if successful in passing we will become trainees and then the hard work really starts! Its a great group of people starting the scheme this year so hopefully mixed in with the hard work over the next few years there should be a few good days out on the hill too.