I have been in Chamonix this week with friend Dave for a week of climbing and ski mountaineering. I was on my own Monday so skied onto the Argentiere Glacier to check out conditions on the North Face of the Droites, it looked very black and a quick chat with the guardian at the hut confirmed it had not been climbed for a couple of weeks. March has been a very dry month here and April is continuing that theme. I enjoyed an afternoon of laps on the Grand Montets and met up with Dave on Monday night.
Tuesday saw us head onto the Aiguilles Rouges for a ski tour to allow Dave to get his ski legs and acclimatise a bit. We had a beautiful day in stunning scenery.
Wednesday saw us head up the Midi in the morning to check out climbing on the Tacul and to ski the Valley Blanche on another stunning day.
On Thursday we had to change our plans as we awoke to bad weather with many of the lifts closed due to high winds. We managed a ski tour by keeping low at Les Contamines but with a bit of rock dodging!
Today dawned glorious again after an overnight snowfall so we headed up the Midi once more to climb the Goulotte Lafaille on the NE face of the Tacul. We skinned up to the base of the route but were scared off by masses of spindrift sluffing down onto us and freshly accumulated windslab on the approach apron combining with very warm temperatures to create an avalanche risk we were not happy with. We did get another awesome descent of the Valley Blanche though!
This weekend I am running our snowshoe course here in Chamonix and then its off to Zermatt for a week of ski touring on 4000m peaks with friends Dave, Sandy and Monty.
Tuesday saw us head onto the Aiguilles Rouges for a ski tour to allow Dave to get his ski legs and acclimatise a bit. We had a beautiful day in stunning scenery.
Wednesday saw us head up the Midi in the morning to check out climbing on the Tacul and to ski the Valley Blanche on another stunning day.
On Thursday we had to change our plans as we awoke to bad weather with many of the lifts closed due to high winds. We managed a ski tour by keeping low at Les Contamines but with a bit of rock dodging!
Today dawned glorious again after an overnight snowfall so we headed up the Midi once more to climb the Goulotte Lafaille on the NE face of the Tacul. We skinned up to the base of the route but were scared off by masses of spindrift sluffing down onto us and freshly accumulated windslab on the approach apron combining with very warm temperatures to create an avalanche risk we were not happy with. We did get another awesome descent of the Valley Blanche though!
This weekend I am running our snowshoe course here in Chamonix and then its off to Zermatt for a week of ski touring on 4000m peaks with friends Dave, Sandy and Monty.
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