Chamonix adventures

I think Chamonix is a bit like Marmite…you either love it or hate it, or it would certainly seem that way from most people’s initial reaction when you tell them you’re spending time there!

Personally, I’m totally unashamed to say I love Chamonix (and Marmite incidentally…wonder if there’s a correlation there?!)…yes it’s expensive, full of pretentious people with too much money, waltzing around in Norrona onesies (or other kit that they’ve obviously gone into a shop and asked for the best and most expensive kit available), you are more likely to hear Russian, or English, spoken than you are French in Chamonix town centre, and it’s a brutal game of every man or woman for him/herself in the lift queues each morning…but despite all this, there is something undeniably unique and special that you can’t take away from the place. I hear loads of people, friends and others, talking about how they hate Chamonix and all those things about it (and more) that I mentioned above…in some ways it’s almost like it’s become “cool” to say you “hate” Chamonix, especially if you’ve been going there for years and seen it change …” I mean it’s like so busy and full of tourists, you know?” ….But I can’t agree with them…I absolutely love the place, and to be honest, if everyone really hated it that much, then why do they keep coming back?! And after all, aren’t we all tourists unless it’s somewhere we call our permanent home?!

Lenticular clouds showing high winds above the Mont Blanc Massif from Chamonix centre

Every time I drive up the Chamonix valley, I find it hard to keep my eyes on the road. Towering above you on either side are incredibly beautiful, awe-inspiring mountains and glaciers. You can pick out the more familiar and recognisable ones, the ones you’ve climbed before, the ones you dream of climbing, the ones whose epic first ascents are legendary. Since the first ascent of Mont Blanc in 1786 by local alpinists Dr Joseph Vallot and Jacques Balmat, there have been hundreds of years of history of mountaineering and adventures on these peaks, and when you are surrounded by all those stories, legends and history, it’s hard not to feel inspired, motivated, excited, and maybe a little bit intimidated. It’s a pretty magical place.

Big mountain skiing amongst the crevasses of the Mer de Glace

There is no denying, whether you love, or hate it, that Chamonix is quite simply an amazing place for off-piste skiing and mountaineering. Whilst many other Alpine resorts may have more pisted area and boast more runs, few can compete with the amount and variety of easily accessible off-piste terrain. From mellow angled glacier runs, to steep narrow couloirs, ski tours over classic cols and up to famous peaks, and even straight-off-the-lift off-piste, Chamonix has them all, and as a skier and mountaineer, it’s hard to resist that allure when choosing a place to visit.

Skinning up from the Vallee Blanche towards Italy

With some mountaineering knowledge, experience, and equipment, you can soon escape the crowds of Chamonix, and find yourself with deep, untracked powder, and few people around. Which is exactly where a group of us found ourselves last week. Despite a huge queue for the first lift up to the Aiguille du Midi, it seemed at least half the people on it were purely sightseeing, and most of the rest were in guided groups, 5 or 6 roped together, that we were luckily able to start the plod down the snow arête ahead of.

Lucy setting off down the snow arete from the Aiguille du Midi

There had been a good 30 cm of fresh snow at Les Houches, at about 1500m the previous day, so here at 3800m it was going to be deep. We decided to head down via the Grand Envers route, and once off the top and out of the wind that had been blowing spindrift around and making visibility difficult, we struck gold. Several pitches of at times waist deep snow, saw me whooping my way down, with a massive grin on my face, aided by the fact that I’d chosen to hire some fatter skiers with a rocker (non-tech speak= easier to float on or near the top of deep snow and manoeuvre than my normal skis). I couldn’t believe the difference…..every turn felt effortless, I was floating and gliding my way down through some of the deepest snow I’d skied in, feeling fast, in control, and like I was starring in some kind of awesome skiing diva movie!!

Loving the fat skis!

(Well, there may have been one occasion when I got a little over excited and bounced myself into a forward somersault…but I was just doing a little avalanche control, checking the snowpack out and all that….!) 

Stuck in the deep stuff!

I felt relaxed, and was enjoying the deep stuff way more than normal, instead of feeling like it was all very hard work…needless to say, a set of fat powder skis have been added to the “To Buy” list for some point when I can afford them!

Slightly scary snow bridge crossing with big crevasses either side! (You can't see my concentrating face!)

The only thing that did feel hard was breathing….Now I suppose the views up on the Vallee Blanche are pretty breath taking, and doing anything physical above 3000m tends to feel a little bit harder than down at the altitudes us Brits are mostly used to, but I’d been up there quite a bit since arriving in Chamonix, and today felt very different. I knew I had the start of a cold, but for me that’s normally a couple of days of a bit of a sore throat and a sniffle, and as hard as I tried to ignore it, this was a bit more than that. My breathing was shallow and fast, and I couldn’t slow it down or take a deeper breath as it was really painful. Climbing the steps up to the train at Montenvers felt harder than ever, I was literally gasping for breath, and being overtaken by overweight tourists on their way back up from visiting the ice caves on the Mer de Glace! Anyway, I chose to ignore it, and told myself to man-up, the snow was too good to not go up a second time! 

Deteriorating visibility up high

Arriving at the top again, conditions had deteriorated quite a bit, and by the time we’d stowed skis on packs, put crampons on, and walked down the arête, there was absolutely zero visibility. A couple of guided groups had turned around and were making their way back up to get the lift down, and although the group of 6 of us were all competent in the skiing and route-finding to get down, a heavily crevassed glacier is not really somewhere you want to be when you can barely see a few metres in front of you. So we started the slow plod back up to the lift station. It was here that I knew something was wrong. Someone seemed to have replaced my normally reasonable volume lungs, with those of a baby sparrow’s. I could literally drag myself slowly up 3 steps and then have to stop for a minute to try and get some kind of breath back. My chest was burning with the effort of getting air in and out, and my body felt completely drained, like it wasn’t getting any oxygen to any of my muscles. I was feeling a bit lightheaded, and terrified of trying to go any faster to keep up with the others, in case I felt more dizzy and tripped or fell (a narrow snow arête with several thousand metres of freefall down to Chamonix is not really a good place to trip). I felt like I was on Everest with the effort each step was taking, not at less than half the altitude on the Aiguille du Midi!! Anyone who’s gone up too high, too fast in the mountains could easily say that what I was feeling was just the effects of altitude. But having felt those before, and being pretty well acclimatised from a month in the mountains, I knew it wasn’t…

When I got down that evening I literally collapsed into bed and slept for 16 hours, waking only to cough a painful deep, chesty cough that as much as I tried to ignore it, I knew was a chest infection.

A trip to the Dr’s the following morning confirmed what I already knew from the horrible hacking cough, the aching limbs, swollen glands, and generally feeling absolutely terrible L Along with the  antibiotics came the scary word ‘Pneumonia’, a referral for a chest x-ray and blood tests given my sky high temperature and low blood oxygen saturation level, and a stern telling off from the Dr for going up to altitude when I kind of knew something wasn’t right… but it was a powder day I’m glad I didn’t miss…;)

Ben and I on a bluebird day trip up to find fresh tracks :)

Grands Montets runs in poor visibility!

A week on and the drugs are kicking in, I don’t feel unwell anymore, I can breathe a bit more normally which I guess is always a good sign (reckon I’m at about kitten size lungs, which is obviously an improvement on the sparrow’s, but hoping I get mine back soon!), I’m sounding less like an 80 a day smoker with each passing day, and I’ve been back out on the skis and climbing too. Nothing too strenuous at too high an altitude, but it’s good to feel psyched again. It’s been snowing a bit this week in Chamonix, so there’s been some great days out with friends finding the best snow…Vallee Blanche runs and skinning up towards Italy with Ben and Leanne, laps in terrible visibility off the Grands Montets with Ben, Nick, Jim and Leanne, climbing fat hero-ice in Cogne with Jim and Ian, and endless laps on great snow (and rewarded with tasty cakes!) at Les Houches with Anest. I even ventured out on my first ski de fond (Cross country skiing) experience today!

Ian climbing up to the belay in Cogne

Jim leading up the main pitch of E' Tutto Relativo

Skiing at Les Houches with Anest

First ski de fond experience...think Bambi on ice!

Crazy skinny skis!

Made it around the red circuit with Leanne

I can't believe I'm down to my last week here in Chamonix before I head back for a quick turnaround and the start of the next adventure....time indeed flies when you are having fun!

Alpine adventures to start a new year...

There can't be too many ways that are better to start a new year, than by being out in the mountains, with bucket loads of fresh snow, sunny, clear, cold skies, incredible views, and days filled with adventures shared with like-minded new friends. Where the hardest decision of the day is whether to put some fresh tracks in this untouched vast expanse of deep soft "hero snow", or the equally attractive looking section of slope just over there...argh....such a difficult decision! ;-)

Fresh tracks coming down the Gros Rognon onto the Vallee Blanche

After an epic 19 hour solo drive to get there, I arrived in La Grave early on a Sunday morning, to meet Lucy and Jake, and lots of their friends, apparently just in time for some incredible conditions. The night before I arrived the snow gods had obviously decided to be kind, and dump a much needed fresh load of silky soft powder in the French Alps. There had been tales of bare, patchy snow cover, and normally well-covered rocks poking out to trash the bases of your skis and provide additional hazards to avoid throughout December, so I had definitely arrived at the right time. Even better, the skies had cleared and for most of the week we were treated to cold, sunny, alpine conditions, keeping the fresh snow soft, and making for the kind of weather you wish for when out in the Alps in winter.

Lucy and I opted for a chilled out first day at Monetier les Bains, part of the Serre Chevalier ski area, and some fab lift-accessed off piste in the trees. Most people there were predominantly skiing on piste, so we were treated to run after run of soft light powder and fresh tracks with no-one around, a great way to find my ski-legs again after a couple of years off, and to get the first couple of crashes out of the way and start to relax a bit! The benefit of powder is that at least it’s soft when you land!

Sunshine and snow = big smiles

Lucy at Monetier

La Grave is famous for it’s classic easy access (ie roadside) ice climbing, but also amongst skiers as some of the most easily-accessible and varied off-piste terrain in the Alps. One very long lift system (plenty of time to eat your sandwiches, faff with kit, discuss the state of the world economy etc etc) takes you up to the edge of the glacier, and a multitude of options for descending. There are no pistes, no marked runs, and therefore no inexperienced skiers. This is big, serious, mountain terrain, where without good mountain sense, you could easily find yourself in trouble. There are steep, narrow couloirs, cliffs, ice falls, dense trees, rocks and other hazards lurking under the surface of the snow, variable snow conditions, and of course the risk of avalanches. It’s also North facing, so whilst you can see the sun on the other side of the valley, it never touches you on the hill, and it can therefore be bitterly cold. It can feel an intimidating place as you step under the rope at the top for the first time! But the skiing is totally awesome. I was lucky to be surrounded by a group of people who have been visiting the area for a long time, and had an in depth knowledge of the layout of the mountain. 

Welcome to the La Grave adventure playground....

Hilda enjoying the awesome terrain 

Ruth heading down on a slope that's steeper than it looks!

What followed was an epic day…one long run followed another, deep snow, great skiing, a tricky, steep, rocky and icy couloir entry, a beautiful run of fresh tracks in “hero pow” on the glacier…and just when I thought my legs couldn’t take any more, I seemed to find myself in the last group of 4, where an executive decision was made to race half-way down the mountain to get the last lift back up from the mid-station. My thighs were screaming, the thin, cold air was making my lungs burn, but I still didn’t know the mountain well enough to make my own way down, so I had to try and keep up! We reached the lift just in time, and I was promised more stops on the last run down. From having got on the first lift at 9am, we skied non-stop, and finished that last run in the dark, discovering what the term “combat skiing” really meant on the way. Tight trees, stream crossings on tiny snow bridges, icy narrow tracks, traverses above big drops, rocks and bare earth…not easy to negotiate your way around when your legs feel totally destroyed! Needless to say, I slept pretty well that night!

  

New Years Eve we awoke to another day of weather that Dave aptly described in his best French accent as “Grand Uber Beau Temps”. A leisurely tour up from Le Chazzelet took a big group of us up to above a vast untouched snow field of an aspect and angle that were a good option, given the current high avalanche risk.

We're going on a pow hunt....

Touring up to the pointy peak top left to find some fresh tracks!

  

Touring up from Le Chazzelet

Sunny skies and freshies :)

Unfortunately, the snow pack throughout the Alps has been pretty unstable at the start of this season. Put simply, due to the conditions and temperatures in December, there is a very weak, unstable layer in the snowpack, which after a whole load of new snow falling on top of it, means the chances of natural and human triggered avalanches occurring are very high on many slopes. There have sadly been a lot of avalanche victims already, and a great deal of caution, knowledge and careful conditions and forecast studying is needed in deciding where and where not to go. I’ve been very lucky to be skiing with, and staying with and near friends and others who are guides, instructors, or locals with a good knowledge of the area, and so have been able to ask questions, learn a lot, and add to the general snow safety knowledge I’ve built up over the years I’ve spent in the mountains. Every day’s a school day and all that….

We saw in the New Year in one of the bars of La Grave, and despite feeling that ever present sense of sadness that it was the start of another year without Gareth, and remembering all the New Year’s Eves we’d shared before, I was surrounded by new like-minded friends, and know that he would have thought that being in the mountains and having fun, was an awesome way to start a New Year. I didn’t really feel happy and excited enough to get involved in dancing, but there were plenty of people to talk to, and adventures for the following day to plan!

1st January 2014...a good way to start the New Year

Whilst most of the group had decided to take a rest day to recover from hangovers, especially as the forecast had been uncertain, it was just Jon, Rachael and I who headed out on a bright and sunny New Years Day, to tour up from Le Chazzelet, and go in search of more untouched “neige de hero” and freshies in the pow…and we certainly found it!

Our hidden valley :)

Jon breaking trail

Rachael's first ski tour...I think she'll be hooked :)

Dropping into a hidden valley, we were treated to incredible soft, forgiving snow, and a sense of total remoteness in a beautiful area. Thick, fresh snow, glittering in the sun just seems to make everything clean, and kind of softens the sound around you too, making it seem completely peaceful and still. It was staggeringly beautiful, and a fantastic way to spend the first day of 2014.

The following day was Snowmageddon. There’s something that still makes me feel as excited as a small child in a sweet shop when I wake up in a morning and see big snowflakes falling from the sky, and this was one of those days. In fact it snowed heavily all day, and a group of us spent the day shredding deep powder in the trees at Monetier. Unfortunately, if you crash in deep soft snow and lose a ski, it can take a loooooong time to find it, as unfortunately Jon and Lucy both discovered, as well as the phrase “No friends on a powder day!”…but they did both eventually find them thankfully!

Silky soft snow in the trees at Monetier

Lucy gets her request of only wanting to ski in fresh powder!

Jake dropping in 

As I don’t ski often enough to warrant or afford to have several sets of skis, mine are a do it all, one ski for touring, freeride, piste and off-piste kind of ski….which whilst I love them, means when it’s a powder day and everyone has their super fat powder skis out to float on the surface of the deep stuff, I’m more ploughing through it with my skis several feet under, or leaning way further back than I want to to stop my tips from burying themselves…oh well…when I win the lottery…;)

Les Drus in the sun

Staring at giants

Following New Year week, I drove with Lucy to Chamonix….ah Chamonix, it’s always good to be here J The drive up the Chamonix valley always fills me with excitement and awe as you look up at the towering giants of mountains around you. It’s actually the very first place I skied as a four year old in the Panda Club in Argentiere, and after so many amazing summer trips here, I’d been really looking forward to spending some of the winter here. Jim and Alison kindly let me stay with them for a few days until I could move into my rented flat in Les Houches, and it was lovely to catch up with them both, and to get out skiing with Jim, Ian and Lucy over the next few days.

It’s now a week since it snowed, and in fact it’s been sunny, warm and clear blue skies all week, but thanks to the opportunities to get up high on the glaciers, we’ve been finding soft powder all week!

The first day here we spent skiing the deepest snow I’ve ever been in from the top of the Grands Montets lift, down onto the Glacier d’Argentiere. Snow so deep that sprays of powder hit your face on every turn, making you feel like you’re a skiing goddess in a ski movie…”neige de hero” indeed!

Thanks to James Thacker for the above photos and somehow making me look like I knew what I was doing!

Then it was through the tunnel to Italy and Cormayeur, where it seems there was even more snow than on the other side of Mont Blanc. With the top lifts only having been opened that day for the first time since the fresh snowfall, there were endless opportunities for freshies, and ear to ear smiles…I was beginning to think I’d now only been able to ski in deep powder!

Jim shredding it through the trees

Sunshine and snowy trees :)

Since then we’ve had 2 days up on the Vallee Blanche, one purely gravity assisted descending, and the second a bit of touring up towards the Dent du Giant to find more fresh soft snow. At this time of year the walk down the snow arête from the Aiguille du Midi Cable car is not equipped with ropes, and so it’s an airy traverse with crampons and an axe to get down to skiable slopes. Slightly intimidating, but it has the benefit that fewer guided parties are on it!

Lucy descending the snow arete from the Aiguille du midi

Although the skiing is not difficult, it’s amazing how the fact that you are on a glacier, with crevasses all around, some hidden, some exposed, makes you tense up and ski completely differently to how you would on a slope with less inherent dangers. Wearing a harness, and carrying a heavier pack than normal, and knowing you have to ski in control and not fall  all add to this!

Big crevasses on the way off the Glacier d'Argentiere

Skiing down from our tour up to the Dent du Geant

It’s quite a long time since I’ve been on the Mer de Glace, and I’d forgotten how far it feels like you have to walk up the hundreds of steps to get from the glacier to the bubble lift that takes you up to the Montenvers train. It definitely felt like there were more steps up than I remembered….and there were. On the side of the steps are markers showing the level of the glacier at various years. When I first climbed in Chamonix in the summer of 2003, the glacier was 75m higher than it is now….that’s a lot more steps they’ve had to build each year. Even more staggering, is that I know my Mum and Dad skied the Vallee Blanche the year I was in Panda Club, which must have been about 1986, and at that time, they must have pretty much just stepped onto the train! The glacier is retreating currently at a rate of 30m a year…that’s a huge and very visible amount….I wonder if I’ll still be lucky enough to be skiing or climbing in another 30 years time, and how different the Mer de Glace will be then?

Lucy heading down towards the Mer de Glace

So, today’s a rest day, after a tour part way up the Glacier d’Amethystes and the Col de Tour Noir yesterday made me realise how tired my legs were! After only ever really having had a week or two to ski each year, I’m used to skiing every day and not taking any rest days because I don’t want to waste any precious skiing days. But I’m slowly realising when you’re here for over a month, you do occasionally need to stop and recover! Still, it’s sunny, clear and cold, there’s a superb view of beautiful snowy mountains from my apartment balcony, and though I wish I were sharing it with Gareth, there aren’t many other places I’d rather be right now J

Sunshine lights up fields of super soft powder :)