Hiking from Tete de Balme, Le Tour, Chamonix
No we didn’t stop skiing! In fact the skiing has been so good that there has not been much time to keep you updated on the blog. The last two weeks have been a mix of off-piste skiing from the lifts, ski touring, heli-skiing and traveling.
As usual we are talking about serious off-piste terrain where you should not venture without extensive knowledge about avalanche safety, glacier safety, route finding skills and up to date local weather and snow condition information.
St Anton the Arlberg
Skiing from Trittkopf, the Arlberg
Wolfgang made a trip to Austria for a guided off-piste week in St Anton. Week 3 was all sunny in the Arlberg and our Austrian team did a lot of inventive and creative little hikes and ski tours to find fresh snow. Luckily we know a few very secret spots that could be tracked with style, like in the old days… Wolfgang came home to Chamonix with the car full of locally produced sausages, honey, bread and wine – many thanks to the lovely Jazbinsek family + team!
Chamonix
Skiing Petit Envers du Plan, Aig. du Midi
In Chamonix the snow kept falling with regular intervalls and the areas that had weak snow cover before filled in better, including the tree skiing in Le Tour and the Vallee Blanche. Now we ski from all lift systems all the way down to the valley floor. This means we are enjoying the short-lived season of skiing the couloirs top to bottom in Flegère and Brevent, as well as the trees of Près de Rocher from Aiguille du Midi mid station.
As crevasses have also filled in better we are now happy to guide skiers on any variation of Vallee Blanche.
Le Tour
Skiing in Le Tour, Chamonix
Le Tour, offering family and beginners piste skiing on the front side, has big mountain off-piste characteristics on its backside towards Vallorcine and Switzerland. Here we ski big open bowls, narrow couloirs and spines with perfectly spaced trees. Off piste skiing in Le Tour involves a large, wide spread area that can be difficult to navigate and often the avalanche risk is high. Very dangerous terrain is easily reached from the lifts and the accidents are frequent here. But on a good day in Le Tour you have the possibility to ski first tracks all day in interesting and variable terrain.
Ski Touring
Pick-nick on the top of Col de Passon
The ski touring season also begun for real. Tours in the Aiguille Rouges and the Argentiere basin have now been tracked a few times, and have thus become safer avalanche wise. On sunny days, a few days after the last snow fall, we have been making a lot of powder turns from the Aiguilles Rouges ridge down to Buet, and tracked the Tour Glacier via Col de Passon.
Ski Touring Col de Passon
By taking the lifts to start with, just a few hours of skinning and maybe a bit of boot packing, take us over from one mountain range to another. We ski thousands of vertical meters into hidden valleys, unreachable from the resorts without touring equipment. The amounts of day-climbs to do around Chamonix is practically unlimited and therefore new adventures and fresh tracks can always be made!
