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The Brenva Spur

10th Jul 2015by rosshewittguidingLeave a comment

The Brenva Spur

We arrived at the Cosmiques hut with the plan to climb Tacul and Maudit and ski the Brenva Spur on-sight, but news there had been 40cm of snow dampen our enthusiasm. Tour Ronde and the Brenva Face had been in the rain shadow, while the Chamonix side had received a pristine bounty. As the afternoon cloud lifted we studied the voie normale and considered our options. There was good chance of being forced back in the dark by avalanche risk if we opted for Tacul and Maudit, so we went the long way round, over Col de la Fourche.

We woke just after three in the morning, forced down as much food and water as possible, and headed out into the night to ski the Vallée Blanche. The night was black as ink and the usual summit reference points were cloaked in darkness. Even my powerful head-torch’s beam seemed to be absorbed by the night. Navigation became difficult. Suddenly, something unfamiliar began to form in the darkness – a strange shadow against what little light there was. We broke left to ski parallel to a chaos of huge ice blocks as much as four metres high. The seracs under Col du Diable had fallen. We continued to ski down the Vallée Blanche, beside the avalanche, all the while adding yet more distance to our day. Eventually, after a considerable detour, we were able to ski round the toe of the debris and start back towards Cirque Maudit. Our friends had passed this way the previous afternoon while traversing from Torino to Cosmiques, so we knew this biblical serac fall must have happened in the last few hours. It was an ominous portent for the Trilogy.

At Col de la Fourche we met with dawn as the sun peered over the eastern skyline. That moment of first light is a revelation for the mountaineer whose senses have been deprived in the dark. Fear, anxiety and doubt evaporate as all becomes clear, calm is restored and the low point in the soul disappears. In front of us the Brenva face revealed its magical hidden secrets.

Crossing Col Moore at just before seven that morning, we stashed excess kit in the snow to reduce pack weight before starting up the route. We left behind our skins, ski crampons, ropes, shovels, probes, and extra food and water for the return leg. We would travel through survivable avalanche territory on the way back, but on the route itself only a transceiver was needed for body retrieval by the rescue services. Having estimated the snow would be soft enough to ski by half-past-eight, that gave us a leisurely hour-and-a-half to bootpack 700m.

The air was still and a blanket of cloud was drawn over the landscape below keeping Italy snug. Most people would still be curled up in bed enjoying a lazy Sunday morning. Snow and ice crystals glimmered, and the temperature was pleasant enough to climb the iconic curling arête of the Brenva Spur in thin mid-layers. We quickly covered the final few hundred metres to the pyramid rock tower, gatekeeper to the serac exit onto Col de Brenva.

After stamping ledges in the snow, we swapped crampons for skis and took in the magnificent surroundings. The endless east face of Mont Blanc lay to our right, a crazy mix of couloirs, buttresses and tumbling seracs that held historic alpine climbs such as Route Major. Sun-warmed powder waited for us on the upper section but, as I gazed on it, I wondered how it would ski.

We skied some cautious turns initially, allowing our sluff to run in front until we had passed a section of shallow snow over the ice. Then the angle eased, allowing us to open it up more and a dozen turns of almost sensual skiing took us to the narrow arête. We dropped onto wide open slopes holding perfect spring snow sucking in a couple of hundred metres in five or six swooping turns. Smiles all round.

Now, however, we had to cross back over the Brenva glacier and Col de La Fourche before the final 600m skin back up the Vallée Blanche to the Midi. We were all hit by a sudden slump in energy as we skinned back towards the Fourche, the adrenaline of the descent fading, replaced now by heavy fatigue. The fun was over and it was time to push hard for the last three hours and escape the searing alpine sun.

The Unsung Heroes

15th Jun 2015by rosshewittguidingLeave a comment

So you are all used to me posting photos from the rad places our skiing adventures take us and thats cool, but what you are seeing is the result of a team of unsung heroes who go that extra mile to make sure I’ve got the best chance of succeeding on my latest project. And I’m not talking about major sponsors, they get tagged in all the media posts and regram, retweet through their own channels. I’m talking about the guys on the ground in my home town who help me out day in, day out, and who I have a massive debt of gratitude. They are the unsung heroes:

Colleen at Chamonix Sports Massage helps loosen up all the fascia and tendons as they start to bind up from day in, day out use in the mountains combined with the evils of sitting a desk for hours with poor posture and insufficient stretching. I’m not so indestructible these days and the occasional tomahawk or face plant seems to knock out ribs, collar bones and vertebrae. How the hell I ever coped with the big stacks on downhill bikes is a wonder but these days Carlton the osteopath at La Clinque du Sport does a brilliant job of putting everything back in its place. Jules and Damien at the Bootroom ensure I have race fit boots pushed round all my bones spurs to fit like a glove and never tire of me coming on to get replacement buckles and power straps that have been ripped off. Concept Pro Shop Chamonix provides the best professional service for ski tuning and binding mounting. Craig and Davide will give you a friendly pro service and on Tuesday evenings give you a beer while you wait for your skis. Graham and Colin at Footworks are the guys I go to for general kit tweaks, workshop mods and replacement stuff that I broke or lost. Without them I’d be stuffed.

The Alpine Trilogy Project – Skiing’s Triple Crown

10th Jun 2015by rosshewittguiding1 Comment

Its been a busy few weeks here which kicked off after a heavy dump of snow plastered all the faces. A project had been forming in my mind over the last year which involved skiing and shooting 3 of the biggest, baddest and hardest lines in the Alps. The Matterhorn is perhaps the most well known and iconic mountain in the World. Any time you ask a child to sketch a mountain they draw you the outline of the Matterhorn. Its East Face is an incredible slab of rock, steep enough to defy logic that snow will stick, and its rarely in condition. The West Face of Mont Blanc was a must, Himalayan in scale, the upper pitch alone is 1200 m of 50º starting at 4810 m, combined with another 1000 m of 45º couloir skiing below. This one had been alluding me since 2009 and in years when you have already been skiing for 7 or 8 months, its tough to hold out through June for it. The obvious choice for final route would have been the Eiger West Face but I’d already done it in 2011 and my interest lies in exploring new places. Having not skied in the Brenva Cirque, the Brenva Spur was the obvious choice. A route steeped in history and coveted by Alpinists in a remote and wild setting. After a mild season with low valley snowfall levels, we would be entering and leaving the Brenva by Col de la Fourche and the Aiguille du Midi rather than being able to ski out to the Mont Blanc Tunnel.

All that remained was getting the right partners with the head, experience, strength and fitness to take on these big days. When we embarked on the project I guessed there was 50% chance of completing it in 5 years. The Brenva fell to us first in a 12 hour day and a few days after we nailed the West Face in a 14 hour day – the last 3 hours without water. Reassessing our chances I now put them at 60% chance of completing the project this season but the long term forecast was showing that temperatures would rocket. A couple of days later we were off to Zermatt for what would be our only shot at it. And we did it!

Skiing the Trilogy or Triple Crown in a period of ten days days was a full on experience, mentally and physically. The shortest day was the last one at 10 hours, all 3 days were at 4000 m or more, and all were a race against the clock before conditions became dangerous in the heat of the day. A bit like doing 3 iron man races in 10 days? Maybe, but who cares, this was a personal quest to ski and shoot in wild places with my friends.

Finding skiers who have enough energy left for some big pushes at this time of the year can be tough but a big thanks to the ever psyched and super strong guys who joined me at various stages along the way to make this project a massive success: Mikko Heimonen, Jesper Petterson, Tom Grant, Enrico Kareletto Mosetti, Guilhem Martin Saint Leon.Below are a few shots from the trips with the good stuff and full blog post still to come.

Sundown from the Cosmiques Refuge, en route to the West Face with lots of trail breaking to do over Tacul and Maudit.

The Matterhorn East Face under full moon as Mikko Heimonen sets off from camp.

The East Face plastered the day we skied it.

The West Face of Mont Blanc with our line

The Brenva SpurHeading in the Matterhorn, with low cloud we couldn’t see the line in the upper couloirs

The Midi or Mothership at Dawn, the best ski lift in the World

POV Shot from the Brenva Spur, Italy under a sea of clouds

55º uppers on the Matterhorn above and below

Some POV on the Matterhorn in a steep section looking towards Zermatt. In the upper central couloir of the Matterhorn

Me on the Saudan’s West Face line – photo Guilhem Martin Saint Leon

Enrico Karletto Mosetti and Tom Grant on a lush morning on the Brenva Spur

Our Last Day on the Old Helbronner Tram

23rd May 2015by rosshewittguiding1 Comment

Charlet – Gallet Traverse of Mont Dolent

1st May 2015by rosshewittguidingLeave a comment

When my friend Andy Nelson sent me a message to say he was free mid-week and wanted to do something, I knew the exact thing that he would love as a climber and skier. Although we had both started the guide scheme at the same time, Andy and myself had never had the chance to spend any time in the mountains together and I was psyched to get he chance to do an Alpine route with Andy. Andy at http://www.infinitymountainguides.co.uk is one one the most professional , well trained and talented guys I know, in both climbing and skiing disciplines. Along with Andy Townsend and Paul Chidlow they put us to shame during our guides training! Neither of us had climbed for months so something fun rather than technically challenging was the order of the day. In fact the Charlet-Gallet traverse of Mt Dolent had been on the list for some time and as an intensive period of spring skiing was coming to an end, my friend Emily Roo had jogged my memory at the perfect time. Neither of us had been on the mountain before or had read anything about it so it would be a little adventure.

The route should have been straightforward but after about 200 m we were both weighing up the decision to continue or rappel off. Under a bombardment of rockfall I had seconded up to Andy with my head down below my skis to collect the gear while he looked down wincing as football sized boulders narrowly missed decapitating me. As I reached Andy he dropped the gear down the rope and I climbed as fast as I could and kept going until we broke out left onto the ramp. Now clear of the rockfall we were able to relax a bit and it was Andy’s turn to wade up steep faceted mank to the headwall. Much to my horror he took a belay there and it was my turn to experience some deep facets over rock while looking desperately for a rock anchor amongst the shattered weetabix. I was pretty relieved to reach the col and some sound spikes where I chilled out and took in the view down the Argentiere basin.

A quick traverse to the rimaye under the North Face and we were able to put our skis on and descend the exposed Gallet ridge. Just before flipping the ridge we had to change to crampons for a 10 m section of ice on the traverse but we were back on skis on the crest of the ridge with the pub beckoning. All that separated us from the pub at La Foully was a 1500 m 10 minute meadow skip down the glacier right? Wrong, its pretty complicated crevasse territory and difficult to read onsight. And did I mentioned the 2 inch crust? Holy Jesus it just about ripped my face off when it caught me unawares, once minute supporting you, the next trying to eat you.

Anyways we made it to the bar. 1.5 hours later. The bar maid started to treat me like a local as I had been skiing so many routes to there and soon had 2 pints of ‘red’ on the table for each of us. ‘Service’ as they say in Switzerland.

The shrund went easily after resculpting it to be ski friendly

When the first incoming rock exploded on that rib on the left I nearly shat myselfClimbing fast while salvoes of rock zinged past

This is John McCune’s Poopy Pants traverse – see his topo below. He was soloing over sugar coated slabs and I was under fire from rock fall so have no recollection of it as I was maxed out trying to go as fast as possible. Andy and all the classic ski lines of the Argentiere basin in behind Taking a breather now we are out of the rock fall zone. Pierre Tardivel skied to this spot in his ski descent in the late 90s. Faceted death mank, my favourite especially combined with the weetabix rock. I guess some Alpine rock experience in New Zealand didn’t go to waste.Andy nearly as excited as me to get off the 60 degree sugar coated rock.