Today I was joined by Andy Houseman, Max Turgeon and Tom Grant for a quick tour before the weather broke. We went to the Aiguille du Tacul to ski the shoulder, the lasting memory of the day will be the bitter cold. I toured the whole way with goggles and a buff protecting my lungs from the super cold air. Maybe thats why the Midi was deserted today?
Tag: вне трасс
Tour Ronde Brenva
This week I have had the fortune and pleasure of two runs down in the Brenva cirque in great powder throughout the 2000 m + descent. The first run entered the Brenva Glacier down Couloir Cache, the second time we took the South West Couloir from the summit of Tour Ronde. This time I enjoyed the company of Michelle and Andy Benson.
The Brenva Face of Mont Blanc in the background.
The amazing backdrop of the icy North Face of the Aiguille Blanche de Peuterey, first skied by Anselme Baud and Patrick Vallencent, and its impressive rocky East Face which has only been skied by Italian Maestro Stephano de Benedetti in the early 80’s. De Benedetti poetically describes his motivation and rewards for taking on the immense psychological challenges of Big Mountain Skiing in the clip below from the movie ‘Steep’. Check it out:
Traverse of Courtes and South West Couloir
Yesterday I had a memorable adventure going solo to the Courtes to ski the South West couloir. Les Courtes at 3856 m is an amazing steep skiing mountain with routes of equal quality in both the North and South Faces. Here are some photos from the trip.
The start of the ski line just below the summit.
The abseil line down the V gully in the centre of the photo.
The line taking the leftwards diagonal from the summit to the cliff at the base.
A 1.5 m high crown half way down the line which forced me to ski onto the spur on lookers right.
More Couloir Cache Photos
Sylvain sent me through his photos from yesterday’s run:
With a lot of fresh cooking in this suntrap I tied on to make the traverse to the couloir.
Couloir Cache
The Couloir starts at the demi-lune. A very exposed traverse gains the entrance.
Ross Hewitt Guiding 
