Winter 2006/2007 went down in the Alps as one of the worst snow seasons on record. The start wasn't so bad and New Year's Day 2007 looked promising, with a few epic days to be had after the hangover wore off. One large stormy period in February aside, we got absolutely nothing and what did fall mostly came as rain even high up on the mountain.
But surprisingly, winter 2006/2007 also went down as one of the best season's I've spent here. In terms of quality days, there were many, and despite the lack of snow generally, there was a lot of powder skied. I finally got around to buying a little eurocar and put some serious milage on it, exploring primarily the French Alps. First time in Meribel (powder day), first time in the Ecrins range (excellent tour), first time in the Vaudoise (unforgettable day out)... Where there was powder, I generally found it, with a few notable exceptions (sorry Agnes and Mark!). I climbed a 7b in the gym and felt stronger than ever and feel like I'm technically skiing 100 times better...
I guess what I'd call the best two days - in terms of the skiing anyway - I spent alone, so I have no evidence they existed other than the lift tickets I kept on my dresser and the memories of endless powder that still echo through my head... at Les Diableretes I spent probably the best day of my entire life, skiing lap after lap of endless untracked powder on Himalayan terrain. At Zermatt, Alex's hangover prevented him from enjoying the second best day of skiing I've had in Zermatt - with lap after lap of untracked goodness on the Hohtalli.
The ski touring was generally excellent. The Trappier Couloir strikes to mind as probably the best single day, but Piz Bernina was a great experience too. And how can I forgot our attempt on the Aiguille du Tour? Mont Maudit and Grand Casse were a step up for me, and done mostly solo. I knocked off a few more 4000m peaks and got in probably the best cardiovascular shape since my big trip across Japan.
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But the best thing about Winter 06/07 was the people. I grew farther apart from the group of local climbers from last year, which was a shame especially with Tom, Yoshi, and Louise. But replacing them were a lot of new people in my life, many whom I suspect I will be sharing memories with for years to come. A great girl named Agnes let me into her wonderful life. I was more than happy to forego the nightlife for many great evenings hanging out with her and her French friends. A new guy, Matias, proved to be the partner of the season, and I thank him for some fantastic times on and off the mountain. Emma introduced me to Meribel, Matias' friends Tisha and Rosie were a blast and I look forward to a great summer climbing with them. American Joe and I spent a great time on his vacation to Chamonix, we had some great laughs with Chris and American Mark, good times with Jon & Chloe, with Gregoire, with "Geo" Greg, had a surprise vistor from Ohio of Mr. Scott Riefies, and enjouyed very much giving him a tour of my new neighborhoode, had some drunken fun back in Zermatt with Phil and Alex and a random German girl who's name has escaped me...
I got my visa approved and am now officially here. All in all, I've very happy with how the season went, and life in Chamonix, and look forward to more happy times to come here...
December 20, 2006 - December 28, 2006 -
DaytonWith The Fam'
With NY Mark, Matias & Pete
January 6, 2007 - January 7, 2007 -
ZermattWith Matias & Pete
After two fantastic days at Chamonix schrafing up some freshies, I gave Zermatt a try on Saturday. Schwartzee trees were pretty good and well covered but ~everything~ else is screwed. Wind buffed on the glaciar and not enough cover over the rocks down low. Give it another meter, although Chamonix (Flegere and Brevent anyway) now have enough base to avoid most of the rocks.
With American Joe, Tim & friends fun exploring the up-high ridgeline, decent piste runs
With American Joe and Chris
Laid in a track on a secret Vallee Blanche powstash variation. Up at around 3500m we took great joy to draw in the first three lines on a cruisy 35 degree 300m long wide slope of untracked thick-but-good. Quickly turning into freeze/thaw cycle stuff that was tolerable. Excellent day, to sum it up. Great to be back up in the high mountains again...
With American Joe First skit tour of the season, to Hellbronner
Nearly Losing His Breakfast
Brian stands at the top of a steep slope, legs becoming jelly partly from the sudden altitude gain but mostly from fear. A short chat ensues with the only other person anywhere nearby, his partner Joe, about how to set up some photos. A quick last gulp of oxegen, a plant of a ski pole, and he's off. The snow is amazingly good, he thinks, as he links turns, traversing ever leftward to escape a constant sluff avalanche, always teetering just on the edge of balance.
"Now this is what I call 'mountaineering'," thinks Brian, as he finishes the last turn, sets up his camera, and waves for Joe to follow on down.
A Very Different Midi-Plan
On sunny summer mornings, Aiguille du Midi cablecars unload mountaineer after mountaineer, a large portion of which head for the popular "Midi-Plan Traverse" route. This dizzying ridgeline connects the Aiguille du Midi and cablecar station directly to the highest of the Chamonix Aiguilles with minimal elevation gain...
With Greg
Disapointing! About 100m of good snow at the top of the Bochard/Herse lifts (~2600-2700m) quickly turning to massively-rained-on sludge where even the best of waxes does not help you much. A 2000m snow level would have been fine for Chamonix... I think what happened is it did actually snow down to 2000m but then it rained heavily at the end of the storm to up to 2700m.
With Jackers & Zoe, Mark & Carrie
30cm of dry powder on top of a hard refrozen base. Still scraping the base, but only just, so made for one of the better days of the season out there... hitting powder all day long with little effort. Off to Les Trois Vallees to ski with a friend for a couple days. She swears there should be powpowpow alldaylong.
January 25, 2007 - January 27, 2007 -
ZermattWith Jackers, Will, and Zoe
1/25, On the road at Les Trois Valless with Jackers... awesome. pow. everywhere. Although some rocks here and there, and wind up high fucked a lot of stuff, it's pretty glorious here. I think it snowed a lot more down here... most runs more like 40-50cm.
Winter is finally here!
1/26, on the road in Les Trois Vallees... Powder is still in great condition owing to the cold temps. Most of the resort is now all tracked out but there are still bits and bobs here and there. A quick 20min ski tour and we were starting at the rim of a completely untracked valley. Pure cruising powder bliss for 500m, negotiate a quick cliffband, longish walkout, smiles all around.
With Tom_w
Grands Envers today steep bits with chalky moguls makes for challenging technical steep skiing but not to be confused with a powder day.
With Matias, Scott Reifies, and Tisha
Hit up Verb' and Zermatt with Scott Reifies. It was fun and different planning to ride pistes, with the small sticks... in Zermatt ended up staying out way too late with a certain German girl and couldn't be bothered to buy a lift pass on such little sleep, with the pistes in mind. Zermatt is always a party!
With Martin
A surprising amount of fresh snow up high. 40cm+ on the Grands Envers, slightly heavy but great to finally get some fresh coverage up there.
Backside of Le Tour today. Rain/Snow level bounced between 1300m and ~1700m. Skiing with American Mark. Thin down low but give us another 20cm and that area will be rocking. Even today there's enough to link up some great turns... slightly heavish pow even at the top (moving to glue down low) but it's only 2270m up there. Top of the Grands or the Midi (as well as Mont Fort, G3000, etc.) will be EPIC when it clears.
So nice to see it finally snowing!!!
With Mark Carrey and Real Carrey
With Anges, Teo, and Tom Idris
Tons of avalanche debris at Brevent and Flegere (Chamonix) today. High wind closed the Brevent cablecar and all of Les Grands Montets (so if you're looking for untracked snow...). Snow Cornu and L'Index was quite heavy but especially towards the top (~2400m) was quite fun.
Friday with TeleAl, LITT, and Ripzalot at G3000. Great fresh tracks in heavish but very fun pow all day long.
Saturday at Zermatt was the jackpot. Put in the track down the Hohtalli face under the cablecar line in knee-deep light fluffy pow that went on and on, fresh and beautiful for 1050m! Liked my line on the way up so much I "braided" it, then went for a third, then a forth... all before anybody else tried to ski it.
Did the same on the Gornergrot facing slope from Hohtalli - laid in the first track, then braided it. A little more rocks over there so moved onto Gornergrot itself. Hiked to the viewing platform and did the third track down two 400m faces with a quick five minute hike in between. Second face wind loaded so nearly waist deep and light.
Total of 10000m+ skiied, of which about 8000m of it was fresh tracks. Hit a few rocks but totally worth it.
With Anges, Teo, Claire, and Fred
Excellent day at Courmeyer today with Geo and Matias. 20-30cm fresh and light, on an icy base at the bottom but well bonded at the top (and maybe a bit more up there). Fresh tracks all day in the trees and a surprise clearing where we got in a lovely run down the Youla.
I just skied an entire week of powder, now another week coming? "The life is good," as an Italian friend likes to say.
Flegere today again, this time Index open. Big lines and fresh tracks all day with OK viz. Surprisingly slightly heavy, but still incredible at 50-70cm deep.
This season has required a lot of careful planning and effort to turn "lemon" days into "lemonade". Yesterday was bluebird after a ton of snow but also a ton of wind and a very high rain/snow level. In the afternoon, we hit the jackpot, up high on the Glaciar Rond.
Thanks to Matias for the pictures and for a great day out!
Cross posted to TGR: TR: Chamonix "Making Lemonade" 2007.03.05 - Glaciar Rond
Did a run on the Envers du Plan today. Thinking it would be moguls turns out to be very good! We got a surprising amount of fresh overnight in Chamonix, up high, enough to bury the old tracks especially with the wind loading.
Another powder day in this "shit" season.
March 15, 2007 - March 17, 2007 -
LondonWith Agnes and Shai
Stoked on a surprise powder day. Headed across the tunnel to Courmeyer. Sunny there so head up the Funivie Monte Bianco to ski the Toula Glaciar.
MISTAKE!
It's been several years since I skied snow that horrible. "Windfucked" is a massive understatement for the conditions we endured today.
You win some you loose some I suppose.
Did the Croches-Berard tour, through the keyhole. $$$$$$$$$. ~25cm fresh, third track down the whole valley for 850m+. Good viz all the way.
Best day of the season at G3 today... in terms of stats: 12000m+ vert, 75%+ powder. Skiing alone, so no pics, you'll just have to believe me.
Here's a Google Earth shot of the lines I skied though:
I did the combe only once - it was pretty wind affected over there while the snow on the front side of the mountain was a lot better, especially lower down.
I did eight laps in total, summit to parking lot = 12000m of all pow, all untracked. My first time on the "front side" (lines that end at the Col du Pillon) and this side of the mountain is absolutely incredible.
The last lap met this dude on the telepherique and he took me on the line at the far right. Cliffbands everywhere with very tricky routefinding, a lot of exposed traverses and some tight couloirs approaching I guess 50 degrees.
G3000 has now, officially, become my absolute favorite place to ski in the Alps.
With Tim and his Four English Friends
It seems like everybody in Europe took advantage of last week's storm.
There were epic conditions on offer in Chamonix as well. Last Tuesday we awoke up to crystal clear skies, no wind, and a seldom travelled couloir as our destination. (I promised I wouldn't post the name, although you can find it easily in a certain guidebook...) A few hours and 1250 vertical meters later we celebrated the ascent by carving the first turns down a steep and powdery North facing couloir.
Life just doesn't get too much better than this...
Going Up...
Charging Down...
Around twelve hundred meters of this went on before we arrived at the forest and the snowline. Some tricky routefinding in the woods and then a longish walk out along a stream and finally we were having an apres beer back at Les Houches, our thirst fully quenched.
Cross posted to TGR: TR: Mont Blanc "T" Couloir (Chamonix) 2007.03.28
This one's been on my list for a long time:
From the top of Les Grands Montets, the Aiguille d'Argentiere is like a castle in the sky. The route follows a glaciar suspended in between two imposing rock walls, then climbs a steep couloir direct to the summit.
We got rained out on Wednesday, but Thursday the clouds were so thin I knew they were just a mirage... sure enough after a quick breakfast of cafe au lait and crossaints, we drove to Argentiere where the mist cleared to reveal perfect blue skis...
I'll let the pictures tell the story:
Thanks to Agnes for making it what was one of my best days ever on the mountain. Truly a ski tour to remember.
Cross posted to TGR: TR: Aiguille d'Argentiere (Chamonix) 2007.04.06
Did a "get to know ya" run on the glaciar rond yesterday morning with Semnoz. Oops! Conditions were: Decent chalky (ripping turns) --> icy boilerplate (rappel into couloir, carefully plant turns) --> messy avalanche debris (side slipping and downstepping) --> horrible ice goulettes (downclimbed with crampons). Semnoz passes the partner test though.
Well you win some you loose some.
After recovering at the cafe at the summit, we went for another lap down the vallee blanche. Soft spring snow everywhere and even some fresh tracks! It's all about picking the right routes at the right time...
Cross posted to TGR: Mini-TR: Glaciar Rond Walk-Down (Chamonix) 2007.04.07
Took a little stroll up the old Tacul today, with non-maggot Richard. Two days ago I watched a few troopers bootpack their way up a strange, direct route for the first time this season... no ski tracks as of then. So I was hoping to break the first ski touring track of the season. Alas, the way that mountain works is when one person makes that first trail, it becomes a highway overnight - I'd guestimate 20+ people skied the mountain with another 30+ today.
Ohh well, it was still North facing powder in pretty OK conditions, followed by another lovely slush run down the Vallee Blanche Vrai Vallee variation.
It's like the fourth time on this mountain, so I wasn't feeling too motivated for photos. We just cruised down in semi-crusty pow, trying not to fall in several very scary big crevasses. Next target: Mont Maudit. Then an overnight at the Cosmiques to do all three of the "trois mont blancs":
Cross posted on TGR: Mini-TR: Mont Blanc du Tacul - 2007.04.09
The spring weather in Europe has been hot and sunny - the kind of days where it's nearly impossible to stay inside, with so many mountains out there to climb... Today's mission: "Les Trois Cols". A classic tour, but let's make it more interesting and try to knock off the Aiguille du Tour on the way:
We will skin and climb 1300 vertical meters and with the help of the Grands Montets lift, ski down nearly 3000, and try to tag a 3500m summit along the way via "The Fourth Col". Bbirtle and non-maggot but previously TGR-featured Matias.
Start of the morning - skinning up the Col du Chardonnet. Ski crampons all the way on refrozen morning spring snow
You think you're there, but the top is a gentle cirque that seems to go on for miles
Rapping down the other side. We should have just downclimbed it. Always a CF, this col! Today we had a guided group of four taking I kid you not more than an hour to get down the col and another group who refused my offer to team up on the ropework. Ohh well, w...
With Emma, Will, & friends
I put in the first track down this today:
Top half good boot-deep light powder making wide turns (slope around 45 degrees sustained), getting heavier in the bottom half (goes on for 600m getting progressively less steep but still at around 40 degrees near the bottom) but still super stoked!
The way up with long and hard, but the way down worth it. Overnight at the Refuge Col de Vaudoise.
Thanks to Darin and his Four French Friends for an excellent weekend!
Mont Maudit (The Accursed Mountain) is one of the Trois Mont Blancs visible from Chamonix. At 14,685ft (4,465m) it's the eighth highest mountain in the Alps, just 10 meters lower than the Matterhorn.
Normally you'd overnight in the Cosmiques refuge and hit the peak at first light, but I've always wanted to get into decent shape such that I could safely do it in a single day, from the 8 AM Aiguille du Midi bin.
I called up with Nuno, a resident Chamonix euro-randonnee superstar, and he said he couldn't join me because he was planning to climb Mont Blanc, also in one day, from the same 8 AM bin. All other partners were either busy, not fit or aclimitized enough, or had other plans, so we agreed to at least ride the telepherique together and see how far we got.
Not too far, but much further than I thought. Nuno and his friend left me in the dust about halfway up Mont Blanc du Tacul. Halfway! Given what a climbing machine Nuno is, I was very happy with that. So, here's me alone with my skis on the Epaule du Ta...
Sometimes I feel like having a list or a goal like "climb all the Alps 4000m peaks" can be a little silly. There are so many incredible peaks that are 3900m (example: The Eiger) and likewise some of the ones over the 4000m mark are incredibly boring (example: Wiessmiess). But it does force you to get in the car and travel to places you probably wouldn't go to. I'd been eyeing the Piz Bernina, far, far, far away from home base Chamonix for some time. Finally we got the opportunity to make the trek out there and the trip turned out to be a winner all around.
The approach to the hut is quite complex. We can either do a PD level rock band or skin up a very complex and serac-fall prone glaciar (not recommended). The hut is way up at 3600m so the summit day is easy and we hope to ski down the glaciar itself to avoid the rock band on the way down.
Part 1: From Twingo to Bruno
Matias works a 9-5 in Geneva, so after picking him up, we did the six hour marathon drive across Switzerland to St. Moritz. Wi...
