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Sunday, February 12th, 2012

Couloir skiing at Helbronner – A calm day with a spicy ending

Yesterday we had our last day of our week of filming and we went to Helbronner on the Italian side of the massif. Our goal was just to have a calm last day together, ski some couloirs, get some playful footage on JP as well as to do some more ski mountaineering.

It was definitely calm as we only saw four other skiers on the whole day. We also got the couloir skiing we where after straight from the lift in nice and chalky snow with Mt Blanc in the backdrop.

JP found a bump where he threw a big backflip on his first and only try and after some good Italian coffee we did a spicy variation close to the lift that gave us some nice climbing, two spectacular rappels and some untouched snow with the clouds below us on the valley floor.

It was a fun ending to a great week of skiing together. It feels like we did the most we could from the conditions we had and hanging out with Bjarne and JP is a great pleasure as there are always positive vibes, smiles and laughter and everyone are trying their best to create a good atmosphere. More projects will be planned together in the future!

Now Bjarne will get some work editing everything together. In the meantime, check out his video blog at: endlessflow.posterous.com

JP Auclair checking out the skiing from the gondola

Myself, JP and Bjarne

JP dropping in

And again

Jp chilling out with Mt Blanc in the backdrop

Bjarne Sahlén working

JP working on a good backflip jump

Some ski touring

And then some climbing

Bjarne on a steep rappel

JP skiing in to the clouds

Bjarne enjoying the view

A worthy ending of a good day in Italy

Friday, February 10th, 2012

This blog listed among the best freeskiing sites on the web

Just got the message that this blog is listed among the best freeskiing sites on American ESPN.com. Great to hear after a year of hard work!

Check it out here: http://espn.go.com/action/freeskiing/blog/_/post/7555160/best-freeskiing-sites-internet

Friday, February 10th, 2012

New sponsor – Hestra Gloves

I’m happy to announce my new sponsor, Swedish world leading outdoor gloves manufacturer Hestra Gloves. I grew up using Hestra gloves and I’m now proud to join the team.

Check out Hestra Glove’s website – hestragloves.com

Friday, February 10th, 2012

Some classic ski mountaineering – Couloir Angelique on Les Courtes

Yesterday Jp Auclair, Julien Regnier, Bjarne Sahlén and myself went up to the Argentiere basin to do some skiing up high. We knew that the snow was not to good after the hard winds during the week, but we still wanted to take the chance to make something semi-big together.

It had been mostly northeastern winds lately so we figured that skiing something facing southwest would be our best bet conditions wise. The Angelique on Les Courtes seemed to be the perfect choice – and off we went.

The approach and the climbing up went smooth even though all of us could feel the hard work. I was really happy to be out again as this was my first real ski mountaineering adventure of the season.

At the top we did one rappel to get in to the couloir on the other side and then the fun was supposed to start. But the conditions where actually not that great with a mix of chalky snow that would break loose and breakable crust mixed up with a few turns of powder.

JP was joking that he felt the same thing on the way down as on the way up – “are we at the end soon?”. However, the end of the couloir came sooner than later and we all agreed that it was a character building run, to say the least. Anyhow, it’s a beautiful couloir in a beautiful setting and the boys got themselves a tour on a big part of the Mt Blanc range – from the depth of the Argentiere basin, up Les Courtes NNE face, down on the other side to the Talefre basin continuing down to Mer de Glace and then the James Bond trail all the way down to town.

Thumbs up for a good crew on a nice adventure meeting all the challenges with a big smile. Today its rest day with some computer work and interviews for our Chamonix episodes and tomorrow we will go up again for the last day of skiing together, for this time.

JP, Julien and Bjarne waiting for the top bin on Grand Montets

The toughest cameraman I know, and a great guy… Check out his video blog at: endlessflow.posterous.com

Julien Regnier

Skinning in to the Argentiere basin

Julien, myself and Bjarne

The NNE face of Les Courtes… It was the eleventh time i climb this slope…

JP, Julien and Bjarne climbing in V formation

Julien near the top

JP high up the face

JP rapping down in to the Angelique

JP in the couloir

Julien getting ready

Bjarne Sahlén

Jp putting in the first turns

Julien further down the couloir

Dent du Géant, Mt Blanc and the Chamonix Aiguilles

Mt Blanc and its hat

JP and Julien resting after the couloir, Bjarne can be seen below the shrund

The team on our way down to town racing the last light

Chamonix in the evening light before our ski down the James Bond trail in the dark followed by burgers at MBC…

Wednesday, February 8th, 2012

A day skiing with friends

Today Bjarne, JP and myself met up with Stephan Dan, Julien Regnier and Francois-Regis Thevenet for a ski day around the Cham valley. The plan was to do a tour skiing a run in Aiguilles Rouges then do a variation on Grand-Montets and then do a lap at Midi, but conditions and avalanche danger made us ski one run at Flegere and then go straight to Midi. We found some great snow and we where moving really fast for being such a big group. From Plan du Aiguille we made a variation that was new for all of us that gave us some amazing snow and some rock n roll route finding. The rest of the crew went for a third run, but I hit a tree on my arm jumping of a small cliff and thought it was a good idea to go home and ice it for the adventures to come in the next few days.

For me, today was an excellent proof on how one can have a great and chilled powder day with friends in Chamonix even one week after the last snow fall.

The gang

JP and Julien

The boys again: Bjarne, Stephan, Francois, Julien and JP

Bjarne setting of

JP skiing some pow

Julien in waist deep pow

Fan fan!

The midi cabin

The Chamonix Aiguilles

Bjarne dropping

And Julien as well

Stephane “Fanfan” Dan

Alex dropping in

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

A cold day, some good decisions and some powder

Yesterday we had our eyes on a good couloir in the Aiguilles Rouges. We started in Flegere and walked up to Lac Blanc but the wind was really strong and it was very cold and the slopes wind loaded. There was spontaneous avalanche activity on south eastern slopes and we understood early that our approach couloir could be a no go. But we kept at it to have a look and get some exercise. When we finally arrived to the base it actually looked better than we had thought but nevertheless we decided that it would be pretty offensive going up this one as there was a bit of loading, it was just above terrain trap and the slopes we would ski after the objective would be very loaded as well. This time we where not worried at all about the couloir we wanted to ski, but it was getting to it and back that was the sketchy bit. So we walked back to Lac Blanc and climbed up to Col de Bellverdere, a classic ski tour in Aiguille Rouge. The small couloir leading to the bowl on the backside had a sideslip track as always but it was powder just to the side of it and the big bowl it self was totally filled in with no tracks.

Even though we didn’t get to ski our objective we still got some great powder turns and a fine day out…

Today had been a rest day with paper work for me and a trip to Grenoble to sort out some boots for JP and tomorrow we have some new ski plans… Life is good…

JP Auclair and Bjarne Sahlén with the Chamonix Aiguilles and Mt Blanc in the backdrop

Myself entering the couloir

Bjarne following our tracks

Bjarne Sahlén

JP!

Joining up with Amanda at Le Buet train station

Sunday, February 5th, 2012

The best day of the season so far…

Yesterday JP Auclair arrived and we will work on some Chamonix episodes. We are not trying to make something extreme, its more about getting good days out and trying to show the Chamonix feel to anyone interested. So today we went out and did a few runs at Brevent in the morning and then we went over to Midi for a run down Glacier Ronde. It was a beautiful day and the skiing and the company was simply awesome. JP said it was his best day in Cham – ever… And for me it was definitely the best one so far this season!