Lovely ski yesterday skiing above Chamonix’s Aiguille du Midi on Mont Blanc du Tacul. 600 m of lush cold blower powder down to Col Simond. And its September. What a gift from the Gods! With the warm sunshine, clear autumn air, and quiet mountains, its just pure pleasure being out there. Today I had the pleasure of skiing with young passionate skier Chamoniarde Nico Borgeot who I met skiing the Mallory (under the cables of Aiguille du Midi) in May.
The left edge of the triangle on Mont Blanc du Tacul offers a very aesthetic snow and mixed climb with spectacular views across to the mighty Dent de Geant. The route is objectively safe, avoiding the seracs on the void normal and offers and more interesting and exciting way of getting to the summit. It’s also a good ski line in May and June. This time I was out climbing with my good friend Minna and acclimatising for the summer guiding season.
This was my first visit to the fabled Calanques of Marseilles. The Calanques are the fiord region next to Marseille and host to a plethora of marvelous rockclimbs on walls of impeccable white limestone up to 300 m high. On this trip we had the luxury of a boat and could sail round and chose what took our fancy! I will definitely be back.
Mont Blanc summit and ski guiding trip. This was Mont Blanc the historic way, the pure way, human powered from the valley floor from my house (ancienne Maison Balmat) -which is where Jacques Balmat lived at the time when he made the first ascent of Mont Blanc in 1786! On the first day we made the approach to the Grands Mulets refuge by the Gare des Glaciers and enjoyed a massive feed and relaxing stay with the friendly atmosphere. We left at 5 am the next morning after a hearty breakfast of fresh bread, jam, and coffee and enjoyed skinning under an incredible blood super moon. Soon the dawn light revealed the magnificent high alpine scenery of tumbling glacier ice and painted the iconic peaks red, distracting our minds from skinning.
It was a gorgeous warm day for being on the top of Western Europe, around -10/15C up there and 15 k winds.
We skied down a little wind hardened snow on the shoulder before finding powder down the North Face for 2000 m to the jonction of the Taconnaz and Bossons Glaciers. There we roped up to cross the slots on the Bossons and went back to Gare des Glaciers where the final prize was a long corn run down the para face. A short walk back to the car at the tunnel and it was beer time 🍻..
I am psyched to have another ski trip there at the start of June and the way this spring (May and June are spring in Chamonix) is shaping up with snow almost every day for the last 3 weeks, a mid-summer Mont Blanc might be on the cards!
Ross Hewitt Guiding 