Road trip - Day 5. Couloir de Cosmiques :-)

So today we did a 3000m run. thats one of the longest lift served ski descents possible anywhere in the world. :-) From the top of Aiguille du Midi telepherique, we went a little down the arete that would take you to the Valley Blanche, but instead we dropped down on the south side and hit hard skiers right, around the back of the Midi, then a small hike up, to get to the top of Cosmiques couloir. There we had a 50m ish rappel into the couloir. The run was 50 odd degrees at the top and icy/windy effected, so i sideslipped the first few metres. After that it got powdery. My feet were hurting a hell of a lot and at 4000m it is a little cold, so that combined with i a little bit of a grip factor, meant that i did not actually enjoy the ski as much as i should. But hey, the view was totally epic, and it was the longest, and maybe the hardest, run i ever did, with some nice turns once we got going.

At the base of the couloir we hopped the bergschrund and got onto the Boisons glacier. From there it was a bit of a jigsaw puzzle getting down through seracs and thankfully very snow filled crevasses all the way down to chamonix. We took off our skis at the Midi base station, where i was a broken man. The others went and did another big run, i went off to find the boot fitting shop....

The photos you might notice are a little sparse over the most important section. cant really be helped, under the circumstances. :-)

Lastly, but certainly not leastly, hats off to Ben and his contact (nice-again -younger-than-me South African aspirant guide who's name i have rudefully lost in the 3 weeks since this run), without whom i obviously would not have been attempting this route.

Cable-Car

goes up there...

just dropped off the Arete on south side, and now heading skiers right, around the south side of Ag.d.M.

Just rapelled into the couloir..

Kurt lickin his lips!

After looking at this! :-)

This one is taken looking back up to the rapell we just came off. See skier (Ville) at finish of rapell.

Looking across from the same spot. Can just make out Chamonix and Les Houches down there....

Almost down, ikke. Looking down the Boisson glacier. We about halfway down now, Couloir long gone...out of the frying pan, and into..those seracs :-). My feet by the way, at this point, were completely numb. As a few of you will know, 'ts not all that easy skiing on numb feet like, but it can be done :-)

Old car for the pre-A.d.M telephrique, hidden in the woods on the way down.

Taken on my way to the ski boot shop- only one person knows the significance of this photo! :-).

I always wanted to ski off the A.g.d.M down the north side, but never really thought i would. Now, i did.

Ski y later.

Road trip - days 2,3,4

Day 2; adventure skiing in Marecotte; hiked the wrong couloir, skied down an unknown route on the sunny side, Skis off, downclimb etc, well done Ville on finding the route. Great day.

Day 3; Big powder day in Champex. Great day. broke a pole. hate my boots.

Day 4; washout.

Road trip day 1

Me and Ben joined Kurt, Nasta, Neils and Michel and headed over to Ville's house Les Marecottes in the Swiss Alps, where it had been snowing lots. Stopped on way at Col de Aravis for a small tour. I was hungover like a dog and was practically sick on the way up. oh well.












The team walking through sunny Flumet






















Whilst we skinned up the shadowy side of the col, i was thinking deeply about my hangover, but just managed to catch one of the quotes of the season from Ben. Notice the cliff in the photo - foreground right handside, 5 to 10 metres tall, which Ben and Kurt are standing underneath.

It went something like this.

The scene: Ben reaches cliff, pulls out probe and starts probing the snow. p.s Ben is an aspirant UIAGM Mountain Guide and so knows all about safety considerations.

Kurt: "Ben! stop being a guide, the snowpack is stable here, dont worry about it, blah blah". (Kurt thinks Ben is checking the snowpack stability for avalanche danger)

Ben: "Shut up Kurt, i,m checking the snow depth for the landing"

On the way down, Ben and Kurt both hucked the cliff. Ben did the smaller one and skied it off. Kurt took the bigger one and dissapeared into the snow for a few mins, minus a ski. He was fine though, since the snow was so deep!







Skins off at top






















Nasta celebrates













Sunset on Mont Blanc from Col d. Aravis











Thanks & acknowledgements to Ville and his hospitality in Les Marecotte!

Bens leaving do!

Conditions were hardpack in LG after a few weeks of no snow. Ben was about to head home to the states (and then on to Alaska to Heliguide), so was time for a road trip! What better way to prepare than a leaving party for Ben!

Saint Christophe

so i,ll just skip over the Pan de rideuex, which was in between la vut and St.c. Suffice to say, there was no photo opps readily available, due to my hands being required fairly constantly, and even if they wernt, there was no chance i was taking my gloves off in -20c. anyways, a nice relaxing day was on the menu after the Pan. bring on St. Christophe. This was a classic buy 1 get two free. massive desecnt from the top of the lift, with great lunch in a rustic french village.

at the lift, Soph spots her fashion idol...

Girose glacier lift in action finally....

wee bit of hiking required to get to the skis-on point, but not a lot!

looking South over the Ecrins

down down, u take me down...

woopeee!

traverse traveser trarsevseres!!

fling skis over river...

beware, skiers crossing.....

almost there!

Lunch!!

after lunch we got a free bus down too the bottom of the ski resort of les 2 alpes, a megalopolis of horriblesness. from here we can ride the lifts up and walk a bit and then ski home.

after half an hour of argueing, Raphael the frenchman from LG convinced the fasicts at les 2 alpes to let us on the lift back home for free. good man Raph!! but we were really late to get back up top and were worries that the top glacier lift was closed. rush rush, mucho q jumping, i upset a few posh english wifeys by jumping over the barriers on the lift Q. 20 or so la gravians on the fattest skis les 2 alpes had seen for weeks, and with funny beeeper things and helmets too!! all fun.

the les 2 alpes glacier lift...

cheers go up when we see the romanche valley! phew, that was pretty horrid having to deal with les 2 alpes circus de ski.

Benjo and Soph almost home, only 2200 vertical metres to the bar :-) :-)