Woke up this morning to unexpected bluebird. Rushed down the Midi for a quiet Rond. Best yet.
Rond
Tag: Chamonix
High Altitude Darts And An All Time Passerelle
I’ve been walking past this one for the last 15 years and its never really looked that appealing with runnels, glazed snow, climbers, dropped objects, skiers, Japanese tourists etc. But when we went up for a quick Grands Envers in a window on Monday I took my usual glance over and was surprised that the snow looked really flat.
With no better plans Dave Searle, Si Christie and myself dropped in the next day. 120 m down a tourist decided to use Si as a dart board. Lucky the ski pole hit him handle first. (thanks!). A little further down another tourist’s ski is protruding out of the snow in the couloir.
Skis on, ready to go, I looked down and noticed the pivot on my boot looked loose and was worried about it coming completely undone. Not much choice but to forget about it at this point!
The snow was unbelievable; soooo deep, very cold, sluffing, fluted and did I mention deep? We all went in with low expectations and came out with massive smiles., the best pow of all time!
Dave Searle going in with the audience of tourists.
Waking up now.
Cold in here.
Me skiing, photo © Dave Searle.
And again, photo © Dave Searle.
Si in the upper couloir.
We didnt expect this.
Deep.
Deeper. Searler showing he is back from tibial plateau fracture in December.
Deepest.
First There Were 3 Girls, Then 2, Then 1
At this time of year the crew are like a pack of filthy junkies, always after a bigger hit, easily disappointed by snow quality and expectations generally way too high. Then sometimes you get out of bed, the internet says the top bin is closed but you go anyway. Then there are public announcements to say everything will open late and you sit there thinking that by the time it opens the window will be gone and what was the point in getting up at 630am. But then contrary to all information it opens and you are whisked into a magical sparkling world blanketed by 40 cm of untracked fresh providing a cushion over everything and enabling some fast skiing. All is forgiven.
That said, after 10 weeks of sunshine and touring my glutes just arent in shape for explosive plyometric freeride skiing and today they feel like they’ve been tenderised with a baseball bat!
The title refers to the our group who somehow miraculously got separated during the day. Everyone knows to regroup at the lift, no? Ooops, I guess I have been naughty (again).
Rond Taster Clip
Here’s a little clip from the lush pow on the Rond the other day:
Blower Powder Days
Sponsored athlete Leanne Callaghan (aka Ginger Wookie) is out visiting having just won the female British Ski Tour Championships at Flegere and we were joined by friend Philip and Nora for a fun powder day. We scored a line of cold untracked sluffy blower for some sublime sensations.
Ross Hewitt Guiding 