Yesterday I was back up the Midi for some more North Face action, this time on the Mallory. Tom Grant, Bird and myself teamed up with Mika Merikanto and Niko Palo for this Chamonix test piece. Thanks guys for a mind blowing run!
Mika, myself and Stephane Dan at the demi-line.
Tom Grant crushing it.
Mika & Tom with Stephan Dan and Alex Pittin below.
“Hello, yeah I’m busy, call you back”.
Bird on the mandatory rap.
Elevation time anyone?
Mmmh, can’t see jack shit, download? Fack off you pouff, we’re going to Mallory – Eugster and you lot can hold hands on the Frendo.
The Eugster Couloir on the North Face of the Midi.
Brett Lotz’s final day in Cham
Brett on the roll over.
Bird Early, not so early and a bit hungover, stoked to join us and on the catch up.
Shaeffer finding the Midi North Face clears a hangover in less than 5 turns.
Happy days, Lotz o banter.
Bird arcing out the turns to the demi lune.
Brett approaching the demi lune
Cedric heading down the Eugster Couloir as it starts to snow.
Brett further down the couloir heading to the abseil.
In the final couloir with Eugster direct in the mist.
Bird skiing ice glazed crap in flat light while its snowing. Some rain would have softened it up!
Bird on the exit.
Delighted at the prospect of a cold one!
Thanks for a fun day guys – Bird Early, Cedric Bernardini, Brett Lotz.
The 20% forecast with Foehn today was just good enough to ski a Cosmique. Its well filled in now and you can sidestep in a few metres at the top before skiing – no more rope faff! Definitely a nice relaxed Sunday run.
Tom Grant 
Tom getting a facefull
Ben Briggs
The plan was to go flat out from first bin to Col du Diable before the snow got too heavy. Fast progress was made round into Cirque Maudit and up the South facing access couloir next to the Grand Capucin onto the hanging serac. Above, the line blasts esthetically up the headwall to the ridge next to the Aiguilles Diables. As we raced up the couloir the snow was deteriorating fast in the heat and we had no choice but to turn round at half height. The shallow snow pack here peppered with rocks didn’t make for a flowing ski. It will be good to ski in better conditions another time.
10 minutes later we were down to the Mont Maudit cirque and both still motivated to ski before the bad weather arrived the following day. We headed off in the direction of the Noire above the Geant icefall and romped up the access couloir before it got too much sun.
The summit ridge revealed acres of our preferred ski medium – coldsmoke. After running around for a few hours we enjoyed a couple of minutes on this high perch over the Mer de Glace while eating lunch before cruising on down the North Face. The skiing is never hard but it would be worth having a photo of this face on your phone as route finding could be problematic and rock slabs aren’t helpful for anchors. We managed to sketch over the first slab choke on skis, the snow was only 2-3 inches deep and after Dave passed I had some bare rock to edge over. Then there is a 30 m rap over an icefall which we kept our skis on for. Long easy slopes led to the base of the face where an awkward little step to runnelled, crevassed, hard snow forced us to downclimb – no anchors in sight here.
Col du Diable (Macho Couloir)
God damned heat!
The stunning view to the Breche Carabiniers between the Grand and Petit Capucins 
The North Face of the Noire
Like a kiddie in a candy shop – pow awaits
Michelle has been wanting to go to Col de Cristaux for a while now so I’d been saving it up for a nice sunny spring day when things would soften up. We were joined by fellow Aberdonian climber-skiers Sandy Simpson and Andy Inglis a very social lap on this Chamonix Classic from the sunny right hand finish.
I was surprised to see a large team start up the face behind us when were we 3/4 of the way up. As things were softening up fast and I started to ski down towards them, they appeared quite distressed by the volume of sluff that the skiers on the (other) direct finish were sending down. Surely if you didn’t manage to get out of bed early enough to start with the others, you would question the wisdom of questing up a route knowing people will be skiing down and dislodging anything from 1 to 1000 Te of snow? Would you go onto a big ice route behind people without expecting to get a lot of ice in the face? A few years ago another team followed us up the ice route Omega on the Petit Jorasses. By the end both of them were bloodied and bruised from direct hits from falling ice. It certainly spoiled my day knowing that anything we dislodged was going to harm them to some degree. 
Sandy booting it.
Spot the guy climbing.
This guy definitely felt the need to get a bit more rad than necessary for a 5.1.
Michelle all cosy in a down jacket. The boys were down to mankinis.
Ross Hewitt Guiding 
