Tag: Courmayeur
A New Sponsor – PLUM
This week I went down the Arve valley to visit the guys at PLUM and get a tour of their manufacturing facility and see how they make their tech bindings which have quickly become the connoisseur’s choice. And its easy to see why, as an engineer walking round their factory one see’s a quality controlled process that transforms aircraft grade aluminium from stock bar to the individual components of the binding by CNC machining. The components are then assembled and tested under the same roof. The Felisaz family owned business is in its 45th year having a history of making high tolerance components for the motor industry and even Rolex!
PLUM have kitted me out with their ‘J’envoie du gros’ (I send it phat) binding which is slightly wider drill spacing than the well known Yak at 75 mm and an ideal partner on my Black Crows Nocta. A big thanks to PLUM. http://www.fixation-plum.com/?lang=en
A moody day in the Aosta valley. Lurking cloud had us change plans from Helbronner. 
Beautiful things often come in small packages – 1000s of dollars worth of immaculate PLUM race heal pieces ready for shipping. 
Tested to destruction in house.
Petit Mont Blanc – Bonatti Couloir
Davide de Masi and Max Turgeon waiting for the gondola to open.
Hard snow. I skied lots of this stuff as a kid in Scotland and its as pleasurable for me as skiing over peoples tracks. I’ll come back to GS this in pow. 
Max Turgeon skiing at my turn around point. He went up the the first narrows.
Time for a rest day after 4 days on in the big mountains.
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:
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.
Ross Hewitt Guiding 