Outer adventures
Thursday, March 24th, 2011
Aiguille du Chardonnet – West couloir
Today I had a little solo mission to ski one of the first routes I lay my eyes upon when I first came to Chamonix years ago – The west couloir on Aiguille du Chardonnet. Its one of those routes that one can see from Argentiere as well as the Grand Montets skiarea. But the direct version is still very rarely skied and it has a reputation of never being in good condition.
The West couloir on Aiguille du Chardonnet
As Im just back from Sweden and wanted to get a good workout and get acclimatised without to much objective dangers it felt like a good option, specially when going alone.
I was abit slow in the morning and only made it up with the third or fourth bin, but after traversing the glacier I was in front of the mornig race. I climbed the south couloir and joined the last part of the classic Forbes arête before I stood at the start of the West couloir. It was lots of snow in the south couloir and I was swimming in the snow making the track and in the end when putting my skis on I got joined on the summit by two frensh boys. I waited for them to get ready and then we skied the first half of the decent together with them before they left me alone for the direct finnish. The snow was great and about 15-20 cm deep, but with a hard layer underneath helping you to keep the concentration level up. In the last couloir I first used the rope to get over a small rockband and then skied all the way down to the finishing goulotte in one go. There I did three short sheltered rappels on the side of the couloir and then got back again finishing with a jump over the shrund. A few hundred vertical meters of good spring skiing awaited me here before I got down to the glacier and skied back down to town.
It was a good day up on the mountain with fun skiing and a worthy workout…
Aiguille du Chardonnet and Aiguille Argentiere seen from the Argentiere glacier
The south couloir
The south couloir seen from the top
Forbes arete
And again
And again
The summit
New friends
The famous traverse
At the start of the direct finish
A weird track
Another friend
Saturday, March 12th, 2011
Aiguille Verte – Another good day in the mountains, but with a bitter aftertaste
Yesterday I went up climbing Aiguille Verte with my friend Will Sim. The plan was to do a fast ascent via the route Vivagel on the northeast face. But a slow party where camping on the route. By the time we had climbed 600m, they had done 30m, and lots of ice where coming down so we decided to keep on going to the Bettembourg-Thivierge gully. A Chamonix rule of thumb; no solo climbing underneath happy campers.
Arriving to the gully we discovered that it was not in very good conditions with hard dark ice covering the whole thing. But we still thought it was much more fun than just doing the Couturier so we kept on going. With this brittle hard ice soloing together was no longer an option so we pitched the steep section and then run up the ridge to the top of Aiguille Verte.
It was a great day to hang out on the top of this beautiful mountain. Almost no wind and it were really warm in the sun. We had planned to down climb Couturier to get back, but lots of black ice made it much more logical to go down by rappel. I think we did over ten abalakov anchors on the way down and then replaced slings on some more so one could now say that the decent is properly equipped for anyone interested in climbing Verte in the next couple of days.
Everything went perfectly well for us this day, but I still came home with distaste from the day. I don’t know if it’s only me, but it seems like the objective dangers have become much bigger in the mountains this season. When we got down to the bergschrund at the end the day, the whole thing had collapsed. Skiing down the glacier also feels like walking around on a minefield in the midst of a war with black bottomless holes everywhere covered with brittle bridges. And coming home to town we get to know that one of the parties doing the traverse under Cordier after us got hit by a serac fall; one dead.
It’s a weird year up there right now with a lot of good people getting in trouble.
Its on thing to take risks depending on ones own skills in skiing and climbing or just being in the mountains, but playing the game of Russian roulette with a clip full of bullets in the world of objective dangers. That really sucks!
Now awaits a vacation from the big stuff to recharge the batteries…
Thanks Will for a good day out…
Will Sim getting ready to rock
Will climbing
On a cold belay
Will climbing
And again
Summit ridge
Looking down the Whymper
Will taking it easy on the summit of Aiguille Verte
Rapping
One of many abalakovs
Getting over the bergschrund
Mt Dolent in the sunset
And Chardonnay and Aiguille Argentiere
Will skiing skinny skis english style, really fast though
Droites and Verte in the twilight zone
Headlamp skiing
and again
Friday, February 11th, 2011
Les Droites – Ginat – Motorway up one of Chamonix’s classic north faces
Yesterday I did the Ginat on Les Droites with good friend and mountain guide Jimmy Halvardsson. It was a great day out on this 1200 m big ice and rock face. Over a month of good and stable weather has turned the route in to a must do at the moment with super great conditions making the route relatively easy.
The north face of Les Droites
We came up with the first bin in the morning, had a great climb, topped out in late afternoon, had a walk back to town and ended up at Chambre 9 for a couple jugs of water, and then I continued over, still in climbing clothes to Lapin Aigle for wine with friends from home.
Another great day in the mountains – thanks Jimmy!
If you want to hire a mountain guide, or just want to check out this awesome guy and great climber – visit Jimmy’s website at www.ascentdescent.com.
On the route we met friend and climber Korra Pesce who was out on just another adventure soloing the Jackson and then from the top down climbed (solo again of course) the Ginat. An impressive feat! To see an edit by Seb Montaz with this climber in action; click here.
Jimmy loves candy, yes he does!
Jimmy climbing
Me enjoying (Photo: Jimmy Halvardsson)
Jimmy on the lead
At the top
The descent
Rappin
Walking down
Valle blanche by night
Montenvers
Monday, February 7th, 2011
Mont Blanc – The wild way – How to walk away a cold and get powder skiing in the sunset
I have, ever since I came to Chamonix the first time, wanted to climb (and of course ski) Mt Blanc early season when you get to be by your self, when there are no tracks and you have to do all the work your self. In a sense – I wanted to climb Mt Blanc when its only me and a friend on the mountain – when the most popular mountain in Europe would just be like any other mountain in the world.
So yesterday I had a go for the realisation of this little dream together with my friend Max Turgeon. I was not to sure about my shape having a fairly heavy cold weighting me down, but two days of rest hadn’t changed the conditions at all so I thought I give it a go.
We went up first bin in the morning up Aiguille du Midi and skied over to the north face of Mt Blanc du Tacul aiming to do the ascent via Tacul and Maudit towards the summit of Mt Blanc.
The north face of Tacul was fairly easy to climb, mostly with skins on but with a few passages over crevasses and seracs slowing us down. Its a completely different story climbing Mt Blanc putting in the track than following the normal motorway that you will find here in the spring or summer. Two years ago I did the climb in three hours from Midi, and now it took a bit over four and a half – being in much better shape.
The north face of Mt Blanc du Tacul
Continuing up the north face of Maudit we found lots of deep snow on places sinking down to our knees in powder snow costing a lot of energy for both Max and me. Add lots of hidden crevasses to jump, climb and avoid and you will understand it took some time getting up the mountain.
Mt Maudit
The last little rise towards the summit of Mt Blanc was luckily hard making it easy to skin up with ski crampons and finally walk with crampons.
I think we both felt like we got the workout we came here for when we clicked in to our skis. But the day was by no means over yet. We had hoped to ski down the west face, normally giving cruisy skiing on open faces down to Val Veny on the Italian side of the mountain, and had taken a chance that we would get some good spring skiing keeping in mind the isotherm was on 3500m and the face is facing the sun.
We had also got warned by our Italian friend Davide Capozzi that the face might be pretty icy, but we wanted to check it out ourselves. Experience says you don’t know too much about conditions before you are actually there, so we went down on the west side to have a look.
However, fifty meters down I found out that what looked like nice easy snowfields rather where a one cm snow layer on blue ice. There was nothing left to do than just put the crampons on and go back up to the ridge and ski down towards Chamonix.
We had now spent about two hours waiting for the sun to warm the snow up and walking back up again the fifty or so meters we had skied down. Trying to do Mt Blanc in a day from first bin, tracking the whole thing and hanging around at the summit for two hours only mean one thing in beginning of February; you wont have to much time to go before it gets dark.
So realising this we started skiing down the hard slopes of the north face. After some crevasse crossing and traversing we ended up on the right track and quickly lost meters skiing various snow conditions with everything from hard transformed snow, breakable crust and a turn here and there in soft snow.
Further down closer to the Grand Mulets hut the snow changed into great recycled powder snow that we would have for the rest of the decent. Imagine this, powder skiing in the sunset with Mt Blancs grand north face as a back drop.All in all that descent gave us about ¼ of shitty snow, 2/4 of so and so snow and ¼ of great powder on a day where the actual climb was the goal and the skiing was done with fairly low expectations.
We got of the glaciated terrain before it got dark and traversed over to the old lift station where we skied down to the track and from there walked down to the tunnel in perfect time for dinner.
The cold, it most have got walked out of my system, because today, I feel great again – although a bit tired in my legs.
Thanks Max for another good day on the mountain.
And Lotti (and Felix), thanks again for the pick up, I realise we are starting to owe you a couple of days taxi service!
Max climbing up Mt Maudit
Climbing Mt Blanc early season involves lots of this
Max and me on the top of Mt Blanc
Max skiing the top ridge of Mt Blanc
About to start skiing the north face of Mt Blanc
Max skiing the north face of Mt Blanc, try to find him – he is in the centre of the photo
Max again
Aiguille du Midi and Les Grand Mulets hut
Max skiing in the sunset
Traversing over the glacier
Skinning back up to the traverse track
Headlamp skiing
Walking down to the tunnel
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
Friday, January 21st, 2011
Couloir Jager, Mt Blanc du Tacul – A fun but very cold adventure…
With the high pressure and the cold holding Chamonix in a steady grip its not to easy to find things to do in the mountains. The cold and the wind are transforming the snow fast and even though ice conditions up high are great its not to fun sitting shaking on a belay waiting for your climbing partner to rock n roll. I decided with my friend Morgan to try something fun we can do fast (he had to work at 3 and it was supposed to be cold) that looks in shape before the cold have changed back the spring conditions to raging winter again. We knew that whatever we choose to do would include a bit of suffering, but we thought it was better than staying down in the valley doing nothing.
So we went for the Jager couloir on Mt Blanc du Tacul. The staff at Midi told us it was around -30C in the morning plus a bit of wind. Skiing to the base of the couloir from the lift station went fast, but we must have looked pretty funny trying our best to cover our faces from the cold. Once there we skinned up for ten minutes before we put our skis on the backpacks and roped up for the massive bergschrund. We found two old ski tracks in the couloir showing us that others already had fun here this season. I’m guessing they had a bit better conditions than us.
The climb up went alright, but not as fast as I had hoped. I climbed with three layers and a down jacket as fast as I could but still couldn’t get warm. I regularly had to stop to warm up my hands, definitely slowing down the ascent. But it was soon over. We skipped the mixed climbing at the top and put on our skis to get back to the sun and the warmth.
The snow was fairly hard, obviously cold and chalky creating lot of friction on the skis making it quiet tricky to ski. But the Jager couloir is not very steep making it a pleasant ski even in not so great conditions.
Morgan came back to work in good time and we had a fun day together on the mountain.
On the way up
Taking pics
Morgan Sahlén rocking
Couloir Jager with our tracks
Tuesday, January 18th, 2011
Col de l’Aiguille Verte – direct
The adventure of the day for me was again set to the Argentiere basin. Col de l’Aiguille Verte has been looking really filled in, specially for being January, so I took a chance and went there today with filmer Bjarne Sahlen. He belayed me over the bergschrund and then stayed in the valley filming and taking pictures.
It was excellent conditions with chalky snow that’s easy to climb and great to ski. My plan was to do the normal route climbing the face in the middle and then traverse lookers right on the upper snowfields in to a hidden (on the picture) couloir. I have done it two years a go with David Rosenbarger and we had a great and steep run, but I have for years been looking at the direct line to the col to the right of the hanging glacier. Today the face was even more filled in than last time and I started talking to Bjarne on the radio while I was climbing. He thought he saw a kind of filled in line all the way to the top. It still was fairly thin, but it was better than I ever seen it so I thought I had to give it a try.
Col de l’Aiguille Verte is famous for being steep, but I got amazed on how much steeper the direct line where. Small and thin snow patches where quickly leading me to the top of the run, but I also had a hard time understanding if it was going to be possible to ski slopes as steep like that. I could feel the ice underneath the snow with my crampons for every step and was making sure to put my track in where I could find best snow coverage so I would have something to follow on the way down.
There where a couple of hard cruxes on the way down combined with really steep turns in good chalk snow. I had to do two short rappels over ice bulges and also about fifty meters of sidestepping where the snow was just to hard or to thin. Because of that I wouldn’t say I did a clean decent, but I had a great experience from a good challenge and I’m happy to ski a line like this early in the season.
The Line (Photo: Bjarne Sahlen)
Me skiing, the little dot in the right hand upper corner (Photo: Bjarne Sahlen)
Looking up the face
View over the Mt Blanc range from the summit
Taking a rest in the fog
