We have had a huge dump of snow right across the Alps with snow lying to less than 500m and over a meter up high. There are no new ski areas open since our last report but we have been out on the skins at St Gervais finding amazing cover for the time of year and great powder. We made a short video to wet your appetite.
First Ski winter 08-09 from Bruce Goodlad on Vimeo.
A rather mixed week so far Kate and I escaped the drizzle in Chamonix on Sunday morning and drove down to Traversella a great set of crags near Ivrea at the bottom of the Val d'Aosta. All th e crags face south so you can climb in the sun almost all year round. There is a great hut at the bottom of the crag which is open at weekends from March to December. We started off on Parete degli Eroi climbing the 2 pitch 5c Panorama sul Piazza we then moved round to Salto della Felici and climbed a number of single pitch routes. Ubfortunatley a few of the routes on this sector of crag have been chipped giving some of the steepest route in the 5s I have ever climbed. On Monday we walked a bit further up the hill to the Torrione degli Istruttori and climbed a coulple of 4 pitch routes we started with Via Degli Istruttori 5b which is great the top 5b pitch up an overhung wall on huge holds. In contrast the second route we did Ladri di Cristalli 6a+ which had 2 great thin slab pitches.
Since we got back it has snowed again about 30cm up high, Richard Lundberg and I went for a skin near St Gervais we went from Communailles to the bottom of the Evasion lift. There was plently of snow and I didn't hit the base once on the way down. We spotted a piste machine working near Le Bettex so fingers crossed for more snow.
Merry Christmas
Alexy in great snow
Most of the ski resorts in the Alps are now open with the best start to the season for years I have managed to get out on the hill for the last 6 days with some great skiing and climbing. We started just before Christmas touring over the Col du Cicle in Les Contamines, the snow on the descent was hard wind pack but really smooth and fun to ski. On Christmas Eve we skied the Crochu, Berard traverse which was in great condition. The Berard valley had recieved no sun or wind so we enjoyed great untracked powder on the descent. On Christmas day we cruised round the piste in St Gervais in perfect sun shine then skiied some off piste from the top of Mont Joly which had softened nicely in the sun.
On Boxing day we had a great descent on the back side of Le Tour skiing the East Couloir of the Pointe du Van we found great powder (video online soon) even though it hasn't snowed for 10 days. Yesterday we went though to Cogne where the ice has been building really well, we climbed the cascade de Lillaz which is in superb conditions.
To summarise conditions for anyone coming out over the new year all the ski areas are now open the touring is good with some soft snow still to be found low down, high up the snow is very wind blown. The Vallee Blanche is in good condition but the arete has not been equiped yet. The ice fall conditions are good for the time of year with 20 routes in condition in cogne, the Argentiere ice falls are in if you want to brave the walk under the serac. I could see the top of the routes in trient the other day and they looked in. Antares in the Val Savaranche is climbable as a re a couple of other routes lower down the valley. Routes are also coming in in Zinal and Arolla.
My brother Roy was out skiing this week.
We had some great conditions with lots of pow der. On Saturday Kate and I were climbing in Cogne where it snowed about a foot while we were on the route so we headed for la Thuile on Sunday blue skies and powder were the order of the day. On Monday we went to Le Clusaz where we checked out some of the long off piste runs, the snow was challenging and the weather was a bit Scottish. The snow that was coming down on Monday gave us great powder in Le Tour on Tuesday we had perfect powder all the way to Trient at the end of the day. We had a day off on Wed then went to St Gervais on Thursday where we managed to find untracked snow all day. Hearing reports of knee deep powder in Coumayeur we headed through the tunnel unfortunaley it had warmed up so was a but heavy with a slight wind crust which made the snow a bit interesting. We finished the week with a descent of the Vallee Blanche all the way to Chamonix.
I was skiing with Brian and Liz OConnor this week, it had been snowing heavily on Friday and Sat so are touring plans were swapped for some Off Piste action. The fat skis were dusted off as we headed for Megeve on Sunday skiing round the Jailet area there was a team decision to seek out some fat skis on the way home. Armed with her new Ten Eighty Guns Liz was enjoying the powder experience a bit better on Monday back at Megeve this time skinning up the Petite Croz Bollet. We managed to get Brian some Salomon Sandstorms on the way home. On Tuesday we skied in st Gervais skiing great untracked lines all day, Wednesday we visited Les Contamines which had great snow on the N faces. We took a gamble on Thursday heading for Courmayeur which hasnt had quite so much snow the gamble paid off with first tracks down the Yula couloir. We finished the week in La Clusaz again finding great snow on the on faces.