On Christmas Eve I had the pleasure of skiing with Jesper Petersson and returning to the Argentiere basin. We skinned from Bochard over the Col des Rachasses towards the Col de Chardonnet to have a go at the South Face. Rotten snow meant getting off the Argentiere glacier was really tough and we had been going for 5 hours by the time we got to the face. The weather was changing rapidly and by the time we climbed the initial couloir the wind was howling, tugging incessantly at the skis on our bags trying to lift us off the mountain. The decision to ski down was pretty simple!
This is one of my favourite touring loops in the Argentiere basin which is continually interesting as it provides the variety of skinning, bootpacking, scrambling, rope work and some couloir skiing. I’m not going to give away any details excpet to ay I regularly see Killian on it before he goes on to tag a few other peaks. Usually its pretty quick but before they opened the top GM tram it felt considerably longer with the bonus skin from Bochard over the Col des Rachasses and it ended up being a 6 hour day – its nice to get some mileage for those big 12-15 hr days that lie ahead and just for general base fitness to be able to ski every day. Besides, being alone in the Argentiere basin and hanging out below those beautiful big walls is well worth that effort.
The New Year kicked off for me with a guides training course in Leysin. The ski technique course was put in place to help the candidate guides improve the technical aspects of their skiing prior to undertaking the induction test for the British Guides Scheme, recognising that most mountaineers have learnt to ski in the mountains rather than coming through the traditional alpine ski process. Fred Harper was a British Guide passionate about skiing and his memorial trust pays for the candidates to go on the course which is a real privilege for us and and massive help with the financial commitment to become a guide.
I was in a group with Alex Languetin who is a Swiss skier, trainer and coach who excels in all disciplines from alpine racing, moguls, freestyle and freeride. His party piece is ripping down the piste with one ski rotated 180 degrees and pointing backwards proving flexibility is just as important for high level skiing as it is to climb 9a. He kept the pace high for 3 days of intensive training that varied from riding fakey to implementing cross under turns down spines and moguls while the atmosphere remained relaxed and conducive to getting to know each other better and have a few laughs. The course also included a classroom session covering the technical aspects of skis, boots and bindings which dispelled a few myths and highlighted the advantages of certain go to pieces of kit.
Overall the course was brilliant and it certainly inspired me to put the big surf board skis away and get back out on the performance race skis and work on my carving again!
Myself and Dave Searle on the magic carpetMaxMax, Guy, Duncan, Calum YvonneTop instructor Yvonne with Paul and MaxAlex, Calum, Duncan, Dave, Guy , Max and Jack in some Scottish weather
The autumn and pre Christmas period was a busy one for me with our trip to New Zealand, high pressure in the Alps and perfect stable snow conditions for exploring. That meant I only had a couple of rest days per month and by the end of the year I touched 180 ski days – hence the reason why my blog was somewhat neglected due to the ease of posting to instagram and facebook!
The day after the PLUM party Vivian Bruchez, Giulia Monego and Dave Searler headed to Pointe d”Orny to ski one of the couloirs. After climbing the couloir we sat and ate lunch in while soaking up the sun on the plateau and taking in the views of the Chardonnet and surrounding peaks. Once again we found a mixture of good cold snow varying from powder to chalk.
In the lead up to Christmas I was lucky enough to get invited to an Avatech training and awareness day offered to the British Mountain Guides. Avatech rep Craig Widdicombe who happens to be my neighbour, hence the invite, ran the course. For those of you who have not yet seen the Avatech system, its a smart probe that gives you a snow profile in under 30 seconds. Compared to a manual pit which could take 30 minutes! The probe has a pressure sensor built into the tip that records the different resistances offered by the layers in the snow.
We started off in the classroom with a run through the application, its layout, how snowprofile data and associated observations / photographs are input and how to find historical data for your chosen route or ski area. Data from the probe is transmitted by Bluetooth to the app on your smart phone where it is uploaded to Avatech’s site. The interface is really user friendly and intuitive so its pretty easy to find your way around. It also incorporates a map system which can be used for your route planning.
The system has already become popular amongst the professionals in north America where it is hailed as a game changer. Meteo France and the Italian avalanche forecasters have also invested in a number of probes. A probe costs around 1800 Euros so its a significant investment but you can subscribe to have access to the website on an annual basis. The real benefit is if these become the industry standard and a number of snow profiles are performed on a particular slope of pitch giving subscribers a good overall picture of the stability on that particular slope.
Screenshot from the Avatech site showing the mapping system with data and observations
Like herding cats, a ‘clowder’ of British Mountain Guides searching for a snow profile location
Andy Perkins and Craig Widdicombe confirming suitable snow depths
Craig deploying the Avatech probe
A snow crystal comparator plate
Taking snow temperature profile
Manual recording of the snow profile in the field
Shovel shear test result.
The Avatech probe showing the snow profile. The resolution here was set to low to compare with the manual profile however it was obvious the Avatech probe has the sensitivity to pick up very thin layers which could possibly be missed on the manual pit.
Myself and Dave Searle on the magic carpetMax
Max, Guy, Duncan, Calum Yvonne
Top instructor Yvonne with Paul and Max
Alex, Calum, Duncan, Dave, Guy , Max and Jack in some Scottish weather
Ross Hewitt Guiding 