Monday, January 31st, 2011
Aiguille Mesure couloir south-west – a beautiful day, great ski mountaineering, some good skiing and a possible first decent…
Up Brevent, pist skiing over to Flegere, a traverse over to Lac Blanc, then up the alternative finish on Col Beugeant, down on the other side in boot deep pow for a few turns, traverse over to Col de Encrenaz, keep on going and up right in the next couloir, when the snow ends traverse left (grade 3 rock climbing – loose rock) to another couloir, climb this one to the top, traverse over a steep rocky face to the south west couloir on Mesure, say hello to a family of Ibexes, click in to your skis, ski some great corn down to a big cliff band, down climb this for a few meters, keep on skiing great snow to a second cliff band, try to set up a rappel, finally succeed with this and end up in another couloir, ski this one down to avalanche cone heaven, survive down to the little track at the bottom of the valley, follow this one all the way down to Buet, miss the train by 2 min, get a hitch on your first try and get back to Cham in time for dinner.
That’s my day today. Felix saw this line earlier this week doing Mt Oreb and after some talking and planning it seemed to be a line treating with a great ski mountaineering adventure. Up and down, skins, skis and crampons on and off, off and on, line checking, rock climbing, a bit of nerve, a meeting with a family of ibexes, great skiing and some problem solving. And then, we haven’t seen any trace of skiing activity on this face (or in any guide book) giving the day an extra nerve that post information cant take away from us. Again a great day on the mountain…
Approach
First couloir of the day
Skiing some good snow with our coming ascent in the background
Felix Hentz finds great snow
End of the climbing
Close to the top
Our friends
Just about to do the first turns
Excellent spring skiing
Couloir skiing
Our tracks from the approach
Going down the last rock band
Sunset skiing
The Face
Saturday, January 29th, 2011
The northeast face of Mt Buet – In the search for pow…
Today I skied the northeast face of Mt Buet in amazing snow conditions together with my friend Felix Hentz. It was one of the greater runs of the season. Top to bottom in great snow except the runnels and some areas that the wind had transformed to crust, but if you played the line choice right following ridges you got excellent skiing in knee-deep powder snow.
Mt Buet is the crown jewel for people ski touring in the mountain range north of the Chamonix valley, the Aiguilles Rouges. Access from Flegere via the Crochues-Bérard traverse makes the approach easy and you will be on a ski touring highway all the way to the top. Not so romantic, but then again you will rarely have to do any tracking saving your energy for the decent.
From the top you will leave the people with speed suits behind dropping in from a cornice heaven to a wild not to steep (but still serious) mountain face. Then, finally down on the glacier follows a rock n roll river to ski, fight, jump and survive before back in Le Buet for a coffe…
A film from the search for powder will be coming soon…
The race for the mountains
Felix changing to skins, Le Buet in the background
View from the top
View towards the lowlands
Checking the line from the top
Felix in the pow
The face
Going towards the rock n roll canyon
