Dolomites – Ross Hewitt Guiding

Post lockdown. June 3rd the Italian border opens. The ski season is over, time to escape to Finale and the warm welcome of our Italian friends
Chamonix doesn’t have much background in pedalling a bike. Sure there are some talented DH and enduro riders but not many are keen to ride through the mountains. There are a few exceptions, Oli Herren for one. In Aosta Davide Capozzi is always motivated for big missions. He’s lighter and faster than me uphill so I need to ride smart on days with him. Here we rode Col di Bard, Col Citirin, Chaligne, Becca Franca totally 3300 m of vertical, oh and it was still 40C at 1830 at 1000 m!
At Denis Tondo’s alpage in the Brento Dolomites
Dropping into Becca Franca after a long 10 hours riding in 40+ celcius. No gloves or kneepads to maximise heat shedding!
La Thuile lift access enduro day with Morgan Sahlen
La Thuile, EWS K run, Mont Blanc Range in the back ground. Photo Morgan Sahlen
The view to Lake Garda, off the back of Paganella
Bobby visits Chamonix
La Thuile, photo by Morgan Sahlen
Brenta Dolomites, I forgot all my protection except for my helmet and kneepads. Perfect for a place built with razor sharp rock. Photo Tim Longstaff
One of my favourite places in the world, Lake Garda. On the way to show Tim Longstaff my favourite pub in the world.
La Thuile magic. Photo Tim Longstaff
Canazei, Dolomites. We’ve just been soaked to the pants in a thunderstorm, I’m semi hypothermic so Tim and myself take shelter in the pub. In beer we trust! This was shit beer, check out Tim’s great beer at Sapaudia Brewing Company
Col Citrin with Davide Capozzi, this one gets harder the further you descend
La Thuile, photo Tim Longstaff
Posettes, photo Ben Tibbetts
La Thuile
Col Lussons lunar landscape, photo Dave Searle
Col Lusson, photo Dave Searle
Colle della Rosso, my favourite ride in Aosta
Colle della Rosso, photo Dave Searle
Brevent, yep its made of rock. Photo by Luke Jarmey
Back Country Finale in the Land Rover Defender
Piero and Filippo – Back Country Finale in Malare. A pleasure seeing our Italian friends post lockdown.
Bobby and Searle fiddling with the Donkey
Bellachat. Photo by Filippo Gualtieri
Early summer and heading to the Aiguillette des Houches
Alessandro Merlini on Bellachat
Nice view
Heading to Bellachat from Brevent. Rocky as fuck, stunning scenary when you can take your eyes off the trail which will likely be just when you stop
Nice view behind me! I love it up here.
Minna and friends on the skyline
All time crew L-R me, Filippo, Gian Luca, Oli, Alessandro, thingymabob et al, Howard
Me and my very good buddy Filippo on Chaligne above Aosta
Visiting Italian Jaco meets Bellachat, Brevent
Morning shred on Brevent before work, good for the soul
Evening shreds from Plan de l’Aiguille are sick. 1300 m of brown pow.
Check this guy out – that tent hitting the back of the knees would do it for me
Morgan cruising some rock slabs at la Thuile
Davide Capozzi at Col Chavanne. There was a lot of snow towards Col de la Seigne so we skipped that and headed to Col Arp Vielle
Davide Capozzi on the exposed start to Col Chavanne going into Val Veni
Val Veni views with Petit Mont Blanc and Aiguille des Glaciers
Davide Capozzi on the Tour du Mont Blanc trail from Col Arp Vielle. Tour Ronde, Skyway, Dent de Geant in the background.
Emosson to Martigny ride. Not my favourite
Not sure what this is – a wonkey donkey?
La Thuile with Tim and Howard
Evening ride at Le Tour
The remnants of the Le Tour Glacier
Letting the arms rest half way down
Davide Capozzi on the techy root section of Col Citrin
Last descent to St Nicholas after 10 hours and 3300 m. Its still 40C at 1800 hrs.
Poor pack horse looks a bit overladen
Taking in the view at the start of a Chatelyard run
Col Entrelor
Entrelor flowy section
A quick coffee stop in La Thuile on the Col Chavanne – Col Arp Veille loop
The Peuterey Ridge of Mont Blanc from upper Val Veni
The West Face of Mont Blanc, a 2000 m ski odyssey
Mont Blanc’s impressive Freney/Broullard faces above Val Veni
The Aosta autoroute – impressive engineering
Searle and Tibbetts on route to Lusson (3300 m)
Searle and Tibbetts on route to Lusson (3300 m)
Lusson, Loson, every map has a a different spelling in this region of Italian – Franco patois
Searle coming down Lusson
Colle della Rosso
The Italian Dolomites – Sella Ronda Tour with Filippo Gaultieri, Denis Tondo, Patrick DH, Tim Longstaff
Rodella
Marmolada views
Denis
Patrick
Tim getting patched up after slicing his leg open on a drainage channel
Denis showboating for the camera
When you grow up racing mx, you need a proper workshop
Denis showing his mastery of whips and berms
The Willy Wonka rail – a stunning blue flow/jump run
Lake Garda
Patrick and the Brenta Dolomites
Denis spent months shepherding at this hut growing up, now he wants to use it as a overnight stop over on Dolomiti mtb tours
Wait, why’s my bike on the chair?
Lake Garda
Riva del Garda, my favourite pub in the world. Scene of so much fun
Tim enjoying morning swims in the lake
That day I forgot my armour in the Dolomites. Highsided on a landing straight onto my spine. Luckily ribs just bruised for a month.
Chamonix, Aiguillette des Houches. Getting in the runs before the lifts close. Broke my clipless pedals in that crash in the Dolomites and De Masi had my flats so riding the worst pedals ever made.
The start of a beautiful day, riding solo in Aosta. 3800 m vertical, 5 cols, 1 summit. Col di Bard, Col Citrin, Col Malatra (2900 m), Col Entre Deux Sauts, Col Sapin, Testa Bernarda.
Col di Bard
Col Citrin with Mont Velan behind
‘If it didn’t exist 5000 years ago then don’t eat it’ – Laird Hamilton. Forget gels, shakes and other crap. Nuts, berries and some fruit will see you double your efforts
Col Citrin
On the 1400 m climb to Malatra.
Refugio Frassati, modelled on the rock architecture of Petit Golliat
Only 400 m to Malatra
Col Malatra
Sunny everywhere except where I am its hailing!
Flow trails below Col Malatra
Grand Jorasses in the background above Val Veni
Its a big day for a Nomad, 12 hours and 3800 m. I’m looking forward to riding a High Tower next season
Last climb done to Test Bernarda. Final descent of the day arriving in Courmayeur for pizza just as the light started to fail.
Should I stay or should I go? A murky day in Aosta had me soaked to the pants within the first half hour. Then it started to dry up so I set little goals (I’ll turn back there…) but in the end made the summit knowing the descent is a path suited to a gravel bike with no greasy rock to negotiate. In the end a super atmospheric day, the inclement weather providing dramatic scenes up Val Veni.

When Minna first sent me a note asking if I wanted to deploy to the Dolomites for the weekend, I have to say I was less than enthusiastic. I’d just finished a heavy week training on skins, bikes and pushing weights, I had work to do and DIY to finish. The perpetual climate change hurricane was destroying the snow in Cham and I felt like I could use my time more efficiently at home than getting up at 4 am and driving half the way to Kalymnos and back in the hope of some snow. Its been a long time since we spent every winter weekend driving through the night chasing Scottish winter climbing conditions and I have to say I don’t miss the driving. Then she mentioned 80 cm. And no wind. Well maybe!

Arriving at Passo Rolle we set of for the Burreloni Couloir and at this point I found the plan was to climb the line rather than ski to the top. I’d left the spanking paddles at home and with so much snow about I didnt have much hope of success which was fine as my body was tired and sore and it was nice just to be in the sunshine discovering a new place. As we entered the cirque, the slide path of a Cat 5 avalanche triggered in the hot afternoon sun the day before confirmed how much snow was about. We skinned up towards the couloir and started the monumental task of swimming up the couloir.

The ski down held super sluffy powder on the left bank and it was a real pleasure skiing with the snow running all around – we havent had much of that this season. Those Dolomiti lines really are ancient hallways gouged through the big walls, very Baffinesk.

Next day Domolmiti Guides Tommasco Cardelli and Cristian Dallapozza joined us to ski on the Cristallo. Conditons were perfect with no wind so we decided to climb along the ridge and ski the Vallencant. I’ve been wanting to ski this one for about 20 years so it was great to finally go. After a firmer top section we hit the pow and the fun started. In the afternoon we skied the beautiful Bus Tofane under the big walls and finished the day with a well earned beer and Pizza.

Our last day out was on the Marmolada where we skied some complex line avoiding limestone slabs down the North West Face. It was a real Cairngorm howler of a day with low vis so I didnt bother taking a camera.

A big thanks to Minna for doing all the driving, to Tommi for letting me stay and to both Tommi and Cristian for showing us some great stuff.