Monday 16 April 2007

Courtes NE Face

Quick blast over to Chamonix this morning to hook up witih Guy, Oli & Steph to have a look at the NE Face of Les Courtes. This was the first time our Greenland team were all together on the mountain, and is part of our warm-up for the trip in May.
Reports were that the face was in good condition to 100m below the top (as per most of the time...), but once the Bergschrund had been negotiated we found a mixture of wind-affected, crusty, and icy snow with the occasional nice chalky bit inbetween.

Not to be deterred we continued booting up the slope and sometime later were teetering about swapping from crampons to skis. The descent was not particularly pleasurable as every turn brought a different kind of snow, and there was no chance to relax and enjoy the amazing position... Still, a mega-classic ski run, and a great day out...

Guy:

Oli (nice headband!):


Looking up at the NE face of Les Courtes (only another 900m to go...):

Looking down from approx 3600m:

In the bag:

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