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Thursday, March 10th, 2011

Memories from a day last summer…

My friend Carl Granlund posted some photos from one of our climbing days on the south face of Aiguille du Midi at the end of last summer. It was my first day climbing in the Chamonix mountains after my accident in the spring – it was a really nice feeling being back.

Carl is a really talented climber from the south of Sweden that lives in Chamonix. Check out the photos from this little adventure and all the other cool things he is up to on his blog; carlgranlund.blogspot.com (Swedish only, but there are lots of cool photos).

Another beautiful line on the south face of Aiguille du Midi (Photo: Carl Granlund)

Wednesday, March 9th, 2011

Carli-Chassagne Gully, Aiguille du Midi – A half day training session

It’s interesting how perceptions change with time. A few years ago I used to look up at the north face of Aiguille du Midi thinking how big it felt and how I much rather ski it than climb it. I used to not train too much and it felt like it would have been a challenge to just do it bin to bin.

Today I went up there to climb one of the classic gullies together with my friend Andrew Lanham. We went up with the first bin and walked over to the Eugster couloir and followed this for a couple of hundred meters before we traversed right to Carli-Chassagne gully a bit further lookers right.

The conditions where easy and the most of the track was already in making the snow sections go really fast. In the gully we passed some French folks and at the end of it our friends Ben O’Connor Croft and Jonathan Griffith, who came up a bin behind us and where out on a soloing mission, joined us.

So for the last half of the route our climbing became more of a social affair than “hard core alpine climbing”. We topped out just after 13 pm and where down in town just after 14 pm in perfect time for lunch.

Thanks boys for a fun day out!

Jonathan Griffith is also a kick ass photographer; check out his stuff on: www.alpineexposures.com/blogs/chamonix-conditions

Andrew Lanham walking towards the north face of Aiguille du Midi

Walking up towards the Eugster couloir

Andrew climbing

Ben O’Connor Croft in action

Jonathan Griffith

Happy boys from the island

Getting closer

Topping out…

Wednesday, March 9th, 2011

Fettisdag

Yesterday was officially the semeldag! Of course we had to bake some! For you guys not from Scandinavia, to read more about them, click here!

Wednesday, March 9th, 2011

Couloir Angelique, Les Courtes – Perfect spring skiing in one of the most beautiful couloirs in the massif

Two days ago I went over to the Argentière basin, with my friend Magnus Karstengren, to climb the northeast face of Les Courtes with the objective to hopefully get some good spring skiing on the other side.

Couloir Angelique

Everything went easy and according to plans and we got to the top of the face at around 13 pm. The weather was stellar and it was warm making the snow on the south side perfect for skiing. We did two short rappels and a few meters of down climbing to get in to the couloir and then the race was on. We where there in perfect time for the good skiing, but that also meant that if we would hang around for too long it would become dangerous with higher risks for stone fall and avalanches.

But the couloir was easily skied and it didn’t take long before we had passed the bergschrund and stood at the bottom looking back up this beautiful line.

Pierre Tardivel opened it up in 1999 and apparently named it after his daughter, proving that this couloir is something special. I would say that according to me it’s the best ski in the Talèfre basin.

And the day is by no means over when one is out of the couloir. No, from here awaits a long, seldom tracked, ski all the way down to Montenvers.

Thanks Magnus for a great ski!

To get more info of Pierre Tardivel, probably the man with most first descents in the world, check out his blog at: pierretardivel.aliceblogs.fr (French only)

Magnus waiting for the bus

Skins on

The approach

Check out the north east face of Les Courtes, not really in good ski conditions. Note the bootpack…

Almost at the top

The view

Me about to start skiing

Magnus skiing some corn

And then even more…

Its crazy how little snow there are on some places…

Guides working hard…

Sunday, March 6th, 2011

A ski touring nightmare

A friend sent me this link and it must truly be a ski mountaineers nightmare. And… This can happen to anyone hanging around in exposed terrain. Hope he is alright.

Saturday, March 5th, 2011

Couloir des Cosmiques x6

Today I had one of the best ski days of the season. I originally wanted to go ski touring to get some training, but in the end I decided with Felix and Max to go and ski the west face of Aiguille du Midi a few times.

Felix called in sick in the morning so up I went with Max. It was a beautiful blue bird day in the mountains with almost no wind and warm temperatures.

So getting up on Midi we traversed around towards the west face and dropped in to the Cosmiques couloir. The entrance was easy to ski and the snow in the couloir was excellent and really easy to ski.

We kept on going throughout the day and Max ended up with four laps and I kept on going to six, almost seven as I just missed the last bin. I found a new Swiss friend, Jürg, on the last run and rounded of the day with a run at the Paraface with him down to the tunnel.

This was a perfect day! Six top to bottom runs in the Cosmiques, and one down the Paraface, everything in super good dry powder snow. We met plenty of cool people on the mountain and I got the boot packing I was so yearning for. Great skiing, great company, lovely weather and some physical exercise = good day out.

Thanks Max for another cool day!