People always ask what do guides do on their holidays it's obvious- go climbing. I've just had 2 weeks off climbing with a friend of mine Neil Stevenson. The forecast was pretty mixed so had to duck and weave to make the most of the conditions. We started our trip climbing a route called Pegases at the Petit Bargy. It's quite an unusual route for limestone in that it follows cracks and needs a rack of gear.
After Pegases the weather forced us through the Mont Blanc tunnel to climb at Machaby then helped a friend move a shed before heading to the Aravis. We drove over to La Clusaz with Kate so we could get an early start we climbed the 10 pitch Tonneau des Danaides on the Mamule. It's great climbing as a three more sociable less kit to carry on the walk in and if youvate organised not much different speed wise. The weather took a turn for the worse so Neil and I headed to the Ecrin we walked into the Sella hut and climbed the N Pillar on the Pointe d'Amone. This a great route on excellent rock lots of moving together with a steeper section in the middle. The route has a great summit ridge then a quick descent to the Sorellier hut. We spent the night there hoping to climb the Dibona the next day but we woke to snow at the hut. The last time Neil and I had been there was 13yrs ago and we got snowed on then as well. It lashed with rain all the way home so we needed a new plan. The unseasonally cold weather meant that areas that are usually to hot in august were possible venues so the 3 of us headed for the Val di Mello. This is one of the most beatifull valleys in the Alps with some amazing granite rock climbing. We started our trip with the amazing crack route Luna Nascente this is probably the most famous route here and a must do. We had an easier day the next day climbing the 5 pitch L'Alba del Nirvana then finished the trip with Kundalini before heading back to Chamonix,
Neil and I finished the trip climbing the classic NE ridge on the Perseverance before he headed back to Norway.
Elbrus the Pure Way
The Caucus Mountains in the Russian Federation stretch between the Black and Caspian seas stretching for 1200miles, on there North side sits the dormant volcano of Mount Elbrus. At 5642m Elbrus is Europe’s highest mountain sitting over 800m higher than Mont Blanc. The mountain has two summits; east and west with the west one being the highest, like many volcanoes the sides are never to steep so Elbrus is a great objective for the adventurous ski mountaineer. I have made a number of visits to Russia skiing in the Kola Peninsula, Kamchatka and the Western Caucuses and my Russian friends kept asking when you are coming to Elbrus. Like so many mountains the south side of Elbrus which is the normal route has cable cars and huts with most people acclimatising then taking a snow cat to the Pastukov rocks at 4650m which leaves them less than a 1000m to climb to the summit. If we were going to visit Elbrus I wanted to climb it in a purer style that would allow us to experience the mountain in a more peaceful way. This May the opportunity arose to try and climb Elbrus from the rarely visited North side. On the North side there are a few basic huts which have been put in place by the local rescue team and local legend Uncle Nick. Uncle Nick has built a hut at 3760m on a moraine which gives access to the summit day on the mountain.
Our team had convened the weekend before departure at the Cosmiques hut above Chamonix for some sneaky acclimatisation, our itinerary for Elbrus was only 10 days UK to UK so we needed any advantage we could get. This would hopefully allow us the opportunity to go for the summit on the first available good weather day. We met in Heathrow on Thursday evening then flew via Moscow to Mineralnie Vody where we were met by Alexey our tame Russian; we were joined here by 4 French and 2 Russians who were going to join us on the mountain. After a night in a hotel in Petygorsk the main city of the Caucuses we climbed aboard what could be best described as a 4 wheel drive Bedford van. These incredible vehicles carried us for 5 hours across some horrendous roads before stopping at about 2000m where we had to start walking. Rucksacks felt heavy with sleeping bags warm clothes skis and boots strapped to them for the walk to our first hut at Djilisu Meadow 2500m. This is a collection of small portacabins with bunks, a few of us slept in tents on the grass outside which felt much more comfortable. The next day was our first acclimatisation, we carried skis to the snow line then skinned to 3300m where we left a kit depot to be collected the next day we then left skis and boots at the snow line to try and keep the rucksacks as light for as long as possible the next morning. The weather was pretty miserable overnight with rain which later turned to snow with about an inch on the tent in the morning, luckily the weather had cleared quickly so we could pack all our kit and head for Uncle Nicks hut collecting our skis and kit depot on route. The sacks felt pretty heavy by the time we got to the hut.
Uncle Nick built the first hut on the site about 20 years ago then built a bigger overflow 3 years ago, what is particularly impressive is that once the materials were delivered on site by helicopter all other kit and food has been carried in on foot or ski. Given that we were 5 hours drive followed by 1700m climbing from the nearest B&Q the hut was surprisingly comfortable and the food plentiful. Tuesday was our first acclimatisation day from the hut, we skinned to 4400m in pretty mixed weather to suck some thin air and make a skinning track for our summit attempt. The forecast had promised a good day for Wednesday but didn’t go any further so we decided that we had better give the summit a go in case the good weather that looked like it was building didn’t hold. We got up just before 2am and were on the skis heading into a cold wind by 2.30 on the track to 4400m that was still there from the day before, skinning this section in the dark felt good but as we gained height and the air thinned the pace slowed. We didn’t feel too bad as we passed the height of Mont Blanc but by 5000m we all felt the weight of our skis.
The route took us to the saddle (about 5300m) between the East and West summits where we changed skis for crampons. We met the first teams coming from the South side at the saddle, it felt odd having had the whole north side of the mountain to ourselves to suddenly have to share with the 40 people climbing from the south side. The last effort to the summit has a steeper section which was hard wind packed snow, we probably could have skied it but it felt much easier in crampons. This soon gave way to final easy summit slopes, after 9 hours of effort we gasped our way onto the summit. The view was superb with snow and ice giving way to brown and green hillsides to the north and the main Caucuses chain to the south. We didn’t linger in the wind on the top and were soon back on the skis leaving the crowds behind us; we descended back to the solitude of the north. I wouldn’t call the ski a classic descent with lots of sastrugi, wind pack and crust to contend with but it did allow us to get back to the hut in 2 1/2hrs from the summit to warm soup and sleeping bags.
The next day the weather stayed fine so we relaxed at the hut soaking up the view and the sunshine. Friday morning dawned snowy and a bit miserable we could have been looking at the view from the CIC hut on Ben Nevis. The bad weather had left us a few inches of fresh snow which gave us our best descent of the trip to the edge of the snow where the skis went back on the sacks. A few hours walking had us back at the road for the terrifying drive back to civilisation. We felt justly proud of our achievements having climbed the mountain with no mechanical help from 2000m to the summit at 5642m in just 5 days, we all felt privileged to have climbed Elbrus from the North side which gave a great feeling of solitude and remoteness which doesn’t exist on the South side of the mountain.
The Caucuses have been the subject of a foreign office advisory notice for some time now; I have made 2 trips to the area and have found the people welcoming and friendly. The mountains are great offering limitless ski touring possibilities. It is possible to get travel and rescue insurance so let’s hope the FCO will see sense and open the area to visitors from the UK in the future.
Team; Bruce Goodlad, Kate Scott, Tamsin Gay, Alison Culshaw, Alexey Shustrov and Uncle Nick.
Mount Elbrus on skis from the North from Bruce Goodlad on Vimeo.
Sorry for the lack of blogging recently. I have been huts pretty much continuously for the past few weeks, here are 3 short videos of some recent trips, The vanoise traverse, a great week round Chamonix and the Benevolo hut with Brian and Liz and a ski Safari based round the Bella Vista and Similaun huts in the Otztal.
Last week I was in the Ortler based from the Branca and Pizzini huts, this is a great area I hadn't skiied from the branca hut before, the hut sits in a cirque of north facing galciers with loads of ski touring options. We started the week in poor weather skiinning to the hut, we woke to clear skies and fresh snow on Monday morning and headed for the Palon de La Mare, which gave a skin of 1200m to start the week and a great powder descent. Tuesday we skied the Punta San Mateo some steep skinning for a short section allowed us to skin right to the summit cross, we had great powder on the descent that changed seemlessly to spring snow low down. Wed we had an easy day and skied then skinned to the Pizzini hut, this as good as it gets when it comes to comfortable huts, ensuite showers and toilets at 2700m. Thursday we climbed the Zufall Spitzen which gave a really nice scramble to the summit. We finished the week skiing the Col Pale Rosse then heading for the valley. Im off to the Bernese Oberland this afternoon for the last weeks work of the season. Hope you enjoy the videos.
bella vista safari from Bruce Goodlad on Vimeo.
Ski touring Chamonix benevolo from Bruce Goodlad on Vimeo.
Vanoise Traverse on ski from Bruce Goodlad on Vimeo.
I met Jenny, Dave in Mateo on sat in Moutier where we were joined by aspirant guide Phil Ashby. The plan was to traverse the Vanoise from Val Thoren to Val d'Isere we started by usingvthe Val thoren lift system to reachvthe Col du Thorens. We then skinned to the Col Gebroulaz then skied the Gebroulaz glacier to the Rock de la Peche hut. Monday we climbed to the col du aussois then skied to the refuge dent parache where we were made very welcome by Frank the guardian. Tuesday we crossed the Col du Labby in very cold windy conditions the skied then skinned then skied to the Arpont hut. The hut was not yet guardianed so we got the stove going and made ourselves at home. We had a steep start from the hut on wed morning with steep skinning then cramponing on our way to traverse the glacier de la vanoise. We spent the nigt in the Col du la Vanoise hut.
Thursday we headed east then south passing the closed refuge plan de lac before climbing the Pointe de Lanserlia. It's north facing slopes gave use the only soft snow skiing we have had all trip. We finished the day with an hour and a bit to the superb Femma hut. The final day we crossed the Col des barme de l'ours then skied some good north facing snow to Val d'Isere
The traverse of the Vanoise was an amazing trip perfect weather stable avalanche conditions and no people. Apary from at the huts we saw no other ski touring parties from Val to Val. A perfect start to the touring season.
Just back from a great 2 week trip to the western Caucuses, this area to the west of Elbrus is perfect for ski touring with lots of mountains around 3000m that you can access from the road. The days were all fairly big with skins of between 1000 and 1400m as with all ski touring trips we encountered all sorts of snow conditions from 1400m of powder one day to seemingly endless crust on others. We flew via Moscow to Min Vody the main access point for the Caucuses where we were met by our Russian friend and guide Alexey Shustrov, Alexey has been waging a one man campaign to open the Caucuses fro ski touring. He has had great success bringing French and Swiss groups to the region but we were the first British ski touring party to visit the area. The problem that any potential British groups face is the FCO advice against non essential travel to the North Caucuses region; this can create problems when finding insurance. We got round this by using www.ihi.com who were very helpful and provided cover without any problem. During our time in the Caucuses we found the people to be friendly and interested in where we from and what we were doing. There was no sign of any problems and Alexey has been bringing groups of westerners to the area for years. We split our time between the area round the small village of Arhyz then travelled to Dombai the only real ski lift in the region where we explored the surrounding valleys. The Caucuses are a beautiful area with amazing potential, I though it was so good I am going back in May to try and ski Elbrus from the rarely visited North side.
Alexey has made a short video of the trip which you can view below.
ski touring in the western caucuses from Bruce Goodlad on Vimeo.
After a slow start the Alps are beginning to look a bit more like a proper winter, big dumps of snow around New Year and the following week have made for some great conditions. I was skiing with Andy and Kat Congleton over New Year and the following week we had some soggy skiing on Grand Montet then it got colder and we had some awesome powder in St Gervais and some short tours near Megeve to get some great tracks. After that it was off to La grave for a week with an old mate Andy Huntington team. La Grave is all off piste and it had dumped 60cm just before we arrived. We started the week skiing in Monetier in the trees then had 2 days on La Grave before half the team went home. With the remaining 3 we skinned to the top of the Col du lauze and skied all the way to St Christophe fantastic. We tried to have a day off but failed as the snow was to good so we had a half day on wed then back to La Grave for more couloirs on thur and finished the week in Alpe d'Huez. Check out the video
La Grave Jan 10 from Bruce Goodlad on Vimeo.
After la Grave it was back to the UK for a surprise 40th then back home for my brothers coming out for a weeks skiing, this overlapped with Kates brothers and various family friends staying in St Gervais quite a few of them had never skied the Vallee Blanche so we had a big team descent on Sunday in perfect weather.
Scott Goodlad Vallee Blanche Jan 2010 from Bruce Goodlad on Vimeo.
We didnt have any new snow for most of the week but we still mannaged to find great skiing in Courmayeur and fresh tracks for part of every day in St Gervais. It hosed with snow on Friday night to finish the week with a great powder day discovering some great new runs.
Merry Christmas everyone.
The winter is now in full swing all the ski resorts are now open with reasionable cover. The snow pack is pretty complicated so be carefull out there. We have had some very cold conditions with a shallow snow pack created depth hoar then fresh snow on high winds. A colleague mentioned that he had never seen so many avalanche crown walls in the Chamonix valley before. I have been out on the skis a bit enjoying a couple of great days in Val dIsere with Kates brother Charles finding some good off piste then Kate and I went to La Grave for the weekend. Cover there was thin but good, the traverses to P1 and the ski to the valley were pretty thin so look out for rocks covered in a thin layer of snow. Have a great festive season.
I had my last Mont Blanc of the season this week for Mont Blanc Guides, we were blessed with great weather, we warmed up at the Orny hut, then climbed Pointe Lachanal from the Midi lift before heading for the Blanc. Summit day was perfect with all 7 of the clients reaching the top. Unfotunatley on the descent Cheryl came down with altitude sickness and was very efficiently evacuated from the mountain by the PGHM in a helicopter. I'm off to Corsica now on holiday but will post up dates via the twitter feed. Have a great Autumn.
BMG Alpine Assessment 2009
This year’s assessment was convened by Terry Ralphs with Bruce Goodlad working with him for the week. Pete Rowlands, Paul Warnock and Phil Ashby were on the full assessment with Tim Blakemore and Hannah Burrows Smith joining us for some of the week. We met in Kandersteg on the North side of the Bernese Oberland hoping to escape the poor weather to the south. The team headed to the Frunden hut on Sunday morning where we looked at teaching Ecole du Glace and the boys demonstrated there ability to perform a crevasse rescue. As we returned to the hut the Guardian asked us if we were able to rescue 4 climbers from the Gallet Grat which we did. Unfortunately for Tim he arrived at the hut just as we were preparing to head up the hill. You can find a bit more about the rescue here. The weather was very poor overnight with 5cm of fresh snow as we had not made it back to the hut until well after midnight we had a short day on the Frunden Horn which gave very testing conditions. The forecast was still for poor weather so the following day we left the hut early walking to the valley then driving to the Gastlosen, we traversed this superb limestone ridge AD+ in sunshine while we could see bad weather to the south.
On Wednesday we were in Saas Fee to try and look at some ice climbing on the North Face of the Allalinhorn. The weather was terrible and we abandoned the day when both teams were hit by a small avalanche. With the weather continuing to be poor from the South we spent the night in Leysin then headed into the Grand Muveran massif and traversed the Arete Veirge AD to refuge Giacomini at Anziendaz. We finished the week making an East to West Traverse of the Argentine AD+ in superb conditions.
The candidates are to be congratulated for their efforts and enthusiasm in very difficult conditions.
I was working for Mont Blanc Guides this week on their 6 day Mont Blanc Program. We started the week from the Albert Premier hut climbing the Tete Blanche. On Tue we traversed the Valley Blanche finding some interesting crevassed terrain on the way to Italy. On Wed we headed to the Tete Rousse hut then climbed Mont Blanc in perfect weather on Thursday.