Ross Hewitt Guiding

Col des Courtes and Aiguille de l’Amone

27th Jan 2012by rosshewittguiding1 Comment

At the end of last season my ski partner Dave Searle and myself got lucky and found these two lines in perfect conditions with a foot of cold untracked powder. The Col des Courtes was a line that I had attempted on numerous occasions (9!) and had once made a swift ski retreat from the mid height rocks when Foehn storm rolled in. This was going to be the last time I trekked up the Argentiere glacier to see if it would go. We were joined by Rob Stokes and this was the first time I had skied with him which was fun. Stokes and Searler’s constant banter kept me continuously entertained throughout the day. Thanks guys. The slope is definitely one of the steepest things I have been on and I was glad of the powder, without that it would have been a very different game.

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The next day Dave and myself returned to the Argentiere basin en route to the Amone. With the hot May days we had to go at race pace up the glacier and climb the SE couloir to before things started to fall to pieces. We were at the Col at Midi, able to relax and have some food. Dave has a similar metabolism to myself which means repeated days on the go eats into our muscle mass and we simply just cant eat enough food. A nice scramble over the arrete brought us onto the face. Thanks to Cedric Bernadini and Luca Pandolfi to recommend this route as it enables the route to be done in a day as long as you are fast. The upper 45 degree slopes didnt feel that exposed after the previous day on Col des Courtes 55 degree slopes but I am sure they would if you havent got accustomed to this type of skiing, especially with the 400 m cliff at the base. Looking back up the face from below it reminds me of something Shane McConkey would have loved for a ‘ski to base jump’ hit with the 400 m cliff. This is probably the most esthetic ski line I have ever done with unbroken skiing from the summit, only Couturier rates higher in my book. Possibly the best two days skiing I have ever done, thanks guys.

Getting back from La Foully was easy due to the efficiency of the Swiss, initially on post bus then train to Martigny. Once we entered France chaos ensued with the train driver stopping at Vallorcine, switching off the lights and announcing the timetabled connection wouldnt run and pointing us in the direction of the local hotel for the night. At 9 pm food and watering was long over due and I wasnt that impresssed to say the least. We hid all the kit in a bush and Dave started to thumb a lift in order to pick up the van from Argentiere and come back for me. The road was like a tumbleweed Wild West outpost and eventually Dave got picked up while I sat and shivered. Dave appeared with the van alot sooner than expected, turned out that the Russian that picked him up thought he was a formula one driver and was testing his wallowing quashquai to the max, taking the blind apex atr Col des Montets at 80 kph and verring onto the wrong side of the road for 50 m. Dave got out at the earliest opportunity and walked the rest contemplating how hitching had turned out to be the most dangerous part of the day.

Italian Powder

27th Jan 2012by rosshewittguidingLeave a comment

The last week had me getting very frustrated with getting up at 645, having coffee and breakfast, preparing kit and deploying to the lift inly to find opening delayed several hours due to unusually large dumps of snow or rising temperatures. By Sunday I’d had enough of this routine and was ready to forget skiing for a while and went indoor climbing to at least get some exercise. The evening saw us ensconsed at Elevation’s bar catching up with friends Hamish and Hannah who were in Chamonix as part of their business tour visiting distributers for their cool merino wool clothing company. If you haven’t heard of Mons Royale check them out at http://www.monsroyale.com/ , I am fully convertwed and don’t wear anything else now for skiing. They make alternatives look like they were styled for pensioners. A few beers later and we decided to get home for a dram and invited another friend round. He didnt show and as the drinks went down I completely forgot about and arrangement I had made to go to the midi with him. Sorry!! When Luca Pandolfi texted to go ski in the morning at Helbronner it seemed worth getting up since it had been shut through bad weather.

Another reasonably early start had us waiting in the cafe at Entreves waiting for opening. I wished I hadnt bothered, cloud was rolling in, the wind was howling probably destroying and powder that had fallen and who knows if the Italians could be bothered opening. They opened to the mid station and a few desperate skiers when up to the mid station to ski the lowers which had seen heat, slides and refrozen into a mine field. We had more coffee. After all its cheap and world class in Italy.

Eventually the top lift opened and we were up. What followed was a day of high urgency trying to get as much volume technical skiing in as possible having not been tired from skiing for a while. Luca is always interesting to ski with, looking at the mountain with slightly different perception from me and keeping me on my toes to make sure I didnt end up somewhere wide enough for a board but not for my 191 skis. The first shot saw us edging over a lip hanging off an ice axe with spin drift pouring over and obscuring the skis, after 2 snow boards had created a trench the teetering tip and tail boucing feeling was a quick wake up call (as if 5 cups of coffee werent enough!). The rest of the day followed this pattern with 5 descents off the helbronner, all bar the first with abseils. On the last run Luca had spied a line which I failed to see and was very nervous in case the ribbons of snow through slabs were too narrow for skis and without crampons and slabby rock with no anchors it would be committing to go there. Instead we decide to follow a line that Davide Capozzi and the Italian Team had just gone down following a traversing line from under the cables rightwards round snow arretes and threading rocks and couloirs. Late in the day the sun was stunning positioned to backlight the Dames Anglais on the Peuterey Ridge like some medieval biblical event. Why are these rock spires called the Dames Anglais, the French will tell you – ‘because its as cold there as and English girl’. This off course meant it was late in the day and with darkness fast approaching and the last bin down long gone the day ended skiing some of the worst rubble, crust, wavy nastiness which reduced me to beginner level forcing traverses and kick turns all the way to the road. A bit of combat down the side of the road and hopping over a running stream had nature remind me who is boss as the ice axe snagged while ducking a branch clotheslining me to the deck as if I had just received a short arm tackle from one of the NZ rugby team greats. A superb day out, equally mental, physical and technical demanding. Thanks Luca! http://www.lucapandolfi.com/

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Gabarrou-Albinoni

17th Jan 2012by rosshewittguidingLeave a comment

With high pressure continuing to dominate it was time to get out and swing the tools with flatmate and Scottish climbing partner Sandy Simpson. Leaving the house were greeted with -12C temps but in the sun on the Midi all seemed more pleasant. This was Sandy’s first time up the Midi on skis and first ski approach to a climb. His 3 weeks of dedicated ski practice had payed off and we were quickly down to the foot of the route. Another pair joined us and to our relief were headed to Modica Noury leaving us to enjoy the route without added hazards. Starting off in the sun it was pretty warm but as we climbed into the shade it steadily got colder throughout the day and despite maintaining a good temp my hands were getting pretty parky while leading the final steep pitch.

The high wind the previous week has stripped back the snow and polished the ice which became more like iron the higher we climbed. Placing a screw almost needed and ice axe to turn it in!

Rapping down was the usual stressful experience. I bounce tested all the anchors, pulling out a peg on one, snapping the cord on another. Another team had been climbing below us and one of the anchors they used was a booming flake of doom so we used an abolokov. After passing that team on the raps it was a relief to get clear at the foot of the route and away from any falling rocks (and get my belay jacket back from Sandy as the temperature was dropping fast!). The sunset alpenglow over the Periades was absolutely stunning and worth being there for that alone.

Sandy’s first valley blanche was to be a mostly night run. The lack of moon was compensated by a decent headtorch and skiing strongly we descended rapidly enjoying looking at the stars around the peaks. Near the Requin hut my girlfriend phoned to see where we were and pulling my phone out of my chest pocket it was sheathed in ice as perspiration from climbing in the morning sunshine had frozen solid.

At the buvette we looked down to the pretty street lights of Chamonix before zipping down the track. To our surprise we came across a couple of guys walking down with their skis with no torch or backpacks. The valley blanche had probably been a bigger adventure than they had anticipated.

Thanks Sandy for a great day.

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Touring

17th Jan 2012by rosshewittguidingLeave a comment

The last week has provided the first stable weather for a while and its been time to get out and do some cardio vascular exercise and get used to my new touring set up. The first day I went up Col du Chardonnet with thoughts of the south face of the Chardonnet in mind but on approaching the col it had been skied the day previously day so I will wait for another time to get fresh tracks. I skied back down towards the argentiere glacier and took the central couloir under the Chardonnet glacier which provided some nice turns on firm cold snow. With a cold wind blowing the snow had stayed cold and being midday there was still time to zip up the col du passon and ski along the ridge to check out some of those southerly aspects. The wind had created sastrugi, crusts and slabs so it was like being back home.

The next day I was joined by Michelle and Philip Ebert and we went into the Aiguille Rouge with the intention to ski the East Couloir on the Floria and the Northerly aspect of the Belvedere. A quick inspection of the Floria revealed the wind had stripped the snow in the couloir so we went to the Col du Bevedere. The snow off the summit didnt inspire us and with loads of parties abseiling off the col we skied round to the Beugeant and then over the Encrenaz down to Buet. Here the trees yielded some superb powder skiing at the end of the day.

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Early season day on the midi

15th Jan 2012by rosshewittguidingLeave a comment

Michelle and myself enjoyed a lush day on the midi on its first day of opening after bad weather. It was relatively quiet after the Christmas and New Year holidays with only locals on the bin up. My friends were headed into the Rond which I thought might be stripped by the NW wind and we decided on a nice powder run down Grands Envers in the sunshine.

Its funny to look at video footage and realise that the pitches are split into short sections of skiing, 8 secs, 14 secs etc, while skiing the mind is going quite slow and it feels alot longer. The whole of Grand Envers must add up to about 5 minutes actual ski time!

After Grands Envers Michelle had some work to do so I went back up hoping to catch the boys for a run but was out of sinc with them so went for a for a quick run down the Rond to get some steep practice and continued down the edge of the Bossons glacier to the tunnel and then to the Grepon car park. I met up with the boys a few days later and was amused when they told me the hadnt done the Rond since it had looked so icy. It was.

Final run of the day with Michelle had us leaving the Midi with only Glen Plake and Thomas Greenhall sharing the mountain with us. After a look into the Cosmiques we decided it had been stripped back alot so we went to Gros Rognan and savoured some sweet powder turns and stunning sunset colours on La Verte. A superb day and nice to start to get some mileage in the legs.