We hoped for an afternoon run down the west face in the sunshine but it was not to be as the sea of clouds built up. Lovely to be out in the sunshine above the grey valley cloud.
Waiting in vane for an opening in the clouds
Some snow art or UFO landing target.
Its that exciting and hectic time of year for me again, getting finished work, Christmas shopping, packing up and getting ready to drive to Chamonix for the winter. This year has been faster and more furious than ever before and I have had a lot of fun reliving some of the moments from 2012 putting this together and getting psyched for this winter:
With the British summer monsoon season ongoing and prohibiting any productivity from climbing, and continuing the Eiger theme, here is the footage from our descent of the Eiger West Face last season:
With the snow being a little tricky and looking worse out left towards the summit we opted for the line shown. On the way up I had my doubts about how good a ski it would be, maybe tiredness from being 4th day on was draining my positivity…but it was fun. Thanks for another great day Cedric. His 5D photos are superb:
http://cedricbernardini.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/b-line-lunch-at-elevation-and-a-hot-chick/
The plan was to go ski something steep. Pro skiers Dave Rosenbarger (Ordinary Skier), Giulia Monego and the real Rock n Roller, Cedric Bernardini made up the team. Cooler temps ruled out the sunny side and new cold snow was unlikely to stick to the cold North side. At Lognan we decided to abandon the idea of going steep and blasted down the corduroy of Pierre et Ric to dump excess kit at the car. Heading up Col Passon we passed about 40 people and enjoyed a descent down the Col Passon where the low angled skiing enabled us to avoid hitting the underlying crud through the dusting. Thanks Guys for a nice day!
Ross Hewitt Guiding 