ross hewitt – Page 41 – Ross Hewitt Guiding

Lift Riding Cafe Crawl

3rd Feb 2013by rosshewittguiding1 Comment

As the wind continued to rage down from the North against the Chamonix Aiguilles, I was lured out of my warm bed by Dave Searle (1) and Davide de Masi (2) with the promise of thigh deep pow on the Helbronner in Italy. After the quick journey through the magic tunnel, we debunked into the first cafe for great Italian coffee while the workers decided what time the lift was going to open.

When we finally got to the midstation, we could see the wind had done its evil worst with slabs going the distance from 3000m to the valley floor. The question in everyones’ mind was ‘who will go first?’. We decided to ski down from the mid station as a warm up, then go back up and see if someone had opened any of the upper slopes.

The ride down was special, the rain had formed rivulets in the snow, akin to the washboard drainer side of the sink, except all the channels criss crossed increasing the chance of catching a tip and driving your face onto the cheese grater ice. We nearly went home after that, but decided to go to the top to have a look to see if it was any better and at the same time visit the second cafe (C2).

More coffee and again that question no one wanted to answer ‘who will go first?’. Luca thought it might be an idea that Searler goes first since he was youngest and had nothing to loose. Searler thought that Luca, being the oldest, had lived long enough and should go. By now everyone was getting caffeine jitters and bored of talking about it so decided to do nothing except download and go home.

On the lift ride down we saw someone had got well overexcited and tracked round to the meadow (Toula Glacier), providing a couple of nice turns between the crud. So, we went back up!! Walked up loads of stairs, got blasted by the Cairngorm style wind on the exit of the station, tracked miles round to the stairs at the col, then walked down thousands of stairs, and started the big ski traverse across the meadow (Glacier) back to the mid station, taking a few pictures on the way. After safely traversing back, we retired to cafe 3 (C3) for more coffee.

A few nice turns between the crud.

Better to stay above the crust.

Uncivilised. This is what I left Scotland to get away from!

Aiguille de Chamois

31st Jan 2013by rosshewittguidingLeave a comment

Blower

29th Jan 2013by rosshewittguidingLeave a comment

Combe des Glaciers Plan de l'Aiguille

Blower

13th Jan 2013by rosshewittguidingLeave a comment

3 Irishmen, 2 Scots, 1 Franco-American, 1 American and 1 Swede went to a very DEEP Grands Envers.

Les Dents du Midi – Les Doigts North Couloir

8th Jan 2013by rosshewittguidingLeave a comment

I was 17 when I first skied in the Portes du Soleil region and I got my first sight of the impressive North Face of the Dents du Midi. The 2 striking couloir lines in the photo below are musts to any aspiring big mountain skier. For whatever reason, I didn’t get round to going there in my first Alpine winter season aged 21, and its taken a full 20 years since my first glimpse to get there.

Couloirs Dent Jaune Left and Doigts on the Right. Photo Taken after Skiing Dent Jaune

And so it was that myself and Michelle went to the refuge Dents du Midi on a good forecast last week. On the approach the weather changed, the cloud dropped and the wind blew. I was glad of the Guides Scheme training while navigating to the hut in a white out.

The hut was cold and we went to bed early to keep warm under the blankets, while listening to the sound of the wind and knowing the forecast was good. Morning came and still the wind blew. Not inspired by the cold we had another couple attempts at getting up before leaving the hut with a curtailed plan given the low cloud, high wind and cold toes.

As we entered the Dent Jaune Couloir the weather deteriorated further and in the cloud I was knocking snow down to get some idea of the slope aspect. The mountain scenery in the couloir can only be described as magnificent, the towers and downward pointing limestone rock strata reminiscent of the North Face of the Eiger, with the exception that we are skiing rather than climbing. To ski in such places with the whole mountain to share between yourself and your partner is what I dream about and the reality of the adventure exceeded what I had imagined it would be like over all those years. So much so that I made a return trip the same week to ski the Doigts Right Hand Couloir.

We went with the plan to ski both the Doigts and Fortress Couloirs, unfortunately the raging wind at the weekend had created a wavy undercut surface covered in rock shards blasted of the couloir walls! (it was very reminiscent of the exit to the White Spider on the Eiger!!) This time I was joined by Ben O’Conner Croft and Dave Searle.

Here are the photos from the second trip. The first trip will be posted next.

Finally a big thanks to Michelle, Dave and Ben for questing off into the unknown with me.