Steep Vanoise 2019 - week 1

Last week was the first of this winter's Steep Vanoise weeks.
With a strong crew but wild weather in the forecast we set out on Monday not quite knowing what we would find - as it happens we found a near-emty mountain, with the cable car couloirs refilling between runs with wind-drifted powder!

Tuesday always looked like the best day of weather in the week and half the world seemed to have turned up in Meribel in the morning - combined with one non-functioning lift the queues were massive - forcing a tactical coffee break to let the mayhem subside. Once we got up the hill it turned into quite a nice day:

Wedsnesday was forecast for a clear start then gradually closing in, however the morning dawned snowy and windy. We took a gamble and went for a skin & bootpack, which paid dividends when the clouds cleared for a great run down:

Thursday was a road-trip day to Sainte Foy. Again expectations were low as the forecast was steadily worsening, but the morning gave enough visibility for 2 quick laps off the back of Col Granier in knee deep cold powder - top marks to the gang for making the second lap - it is a tight squeeze to get a lap in between the 2 shuttle buses, and you definitely don't want to miss the pre-lunch bus or it is a long long wait!!

Friday could have been an amazing day had the 0º isotherm stayed 500m lower - as it was there was porridge, porridge and more porridge pretty much everywhere, so a day of technical and tactical coaching, punctuated by coffee and lunch, followed to wrap up the week in good (if damp) style.

Thanks to Dave, David, Mike, Jeremy, Karen, Sandy, Rod & Chris for a great week, and thanks also to Rob W for a top job looking after half the team. Roll on week 2 of Steep Vanoise this coming week!

Troll peninsula ski touring adventures - second half

...continued from last post...

Wedsnesday dawned bright and clear in Siglufjordur, though the forecast looked less promising for the afternoon.

Plan A for the day:

The bowl to the right of the summit ridge looked smooth, which given Monday's rain/snow was the key to good skiing this week, as anything with rocks above was covered with roller balls or wet sluff...

Very tame ptarmigan:

Good views all round:

As we hit the summit ridge it was looking very gloomy behind the peak, and with sun shining on our descent we decided to leave the summit for another day and make the most of the good visibility and snow.
Ready to drop into our first descent:

A few cms of soft over a smooth base gave very nice skiing!

After a short food & drink break, and with the weather still holding out, we set off back up a different line to the left of the summit:

The weather had been holding so far but as we made our way along the ridge about 50m below the summit the cloud base dropped and we made the pragmatic choice of using the remaining visibility to ski the slopes we had just climbed. Good skiing but flat light so no photos from the main descent, though the run-out to the car was a 5* spring-skiing bonanza, all topped off by randomly bumping into my friend Rick Marchant and his group back at the bottom!

Thursday was a day of evolving plans - plan A was shelved in favour of a rescue mission to find a hat that Chris had left en route yesterday, and with sunny skies and low winds we set off with the idea of skiing the South East face of a peak we had spotted yesterday, which would give us a great run on smooth spring snow... that was the theory until, having found Chris's hat, the wind suddenly picked up as we made our way along the final summit ridge and put paid to any further softening of the snow. Still a nice run down on firm but grippy snow:

Skinning back up we had to brace every few steps as the wind had really picked up!

Once back on the summit ridge we dropped into the relative shelter of the West face and found surprisingly good snow:

Back down in the valley we put skins on again for the climb back up to Kistafjall:

Dropping into the North West face the snow was quite wind-affected for 200m then gave way to a monster pitch of perfect soft snow:

Our final day was forecast to be even windier, so we opted for a quick morning tour followed by a drive round to a geothermally heated 'infinity pool' with stunning views over the next peninsula. All topped off with agreat meal and local beers - not a bad way to end the trip!

Massive thanks to Chris, Rich, Sandy and Dave for a great week - lets see what plans we can come up with for 2019!!

...edit... I had to fly straight out of Akureyri to make my connecting flight to Europe, meanwhile, the team drove back to Reykjavik and took in a natural hot spring along the way - looks awesome! :

Winter 2015 is go!

With good snow reports and a blue-sky forecast I headed over to Tignes today (after a slight delay to get the kids to school) for a bit of a play about and to get the legs back into ski mode again. Having not had a particularly active summer I want to hit the ground running this winter so a few gentle turns top start off seemed like a nice idea.

The upper slopes (around 3500 lift) are in great condition with a few patches of ice showing through lower down (Champagny & Rosolin) but most impressively, there was barely a queue on the mountain - a pleasant change from this time last year when we were queueing for 25 minutes each time...

The summit pyramid of the Grande Motte looked in good condition so obviously after a few laps off the lifts I though I had better see how my lungs would cope at 3600m for the first time since spring. As it had happened someone else had the same idea, as we both got off thetop lift, walked over and started strapping skis to bags in perfect unplanned synchronisation!

A little bit of scrambling to add some interest:

Almost like the Domes de Miage...

Bird's eye view of Tignes:

Joining the selfie craze:

Stunning views from the top:

And good powder on the way down...

And of course the obligatory Espace Killy Monoskier - seen here in 'I'm cool even when I'm riding the chairlift' pose...!

Lofoten - Ristinden South gully

A slightly early return from Lofoten due to 4 days of foul weather forecast for the end of my trip means I can now start to post some updates from the last 3 weeks. In slightly illogical fashion I am going to start with the last day first...

Last year I had spotted some lines on Ristinden, an 850m high peak near Leknes, but ran out of time to go exploring. This year skiing something on this peak was high on my list of priorities as there is basically no information about prior descents, so although the obvious lines have undoubtedly been skied before, there is a real sense of adventure heading off in to 'uncharted' territory.

Ristinden is a stunning peak, with no 'easy way up':

There appear to be 4 good independent steep lines on this peak, the one I was most drawn to this year was the South gully, a direct line from below the summit, with a small ramp leading in from the West shoulder - more obvious from the Leknes area (left-slanting gully line directly below summit...):

Although we had to start the day on foot, soon we were straight into crampons and axe territory to figure out a passage through the lower rock bands guarding the bottom of the face. Guy & Jon on bootpack duties:

A bit of slightly blind weaving took us onto more open slopes, then up into the entrance to the gully:

Once in the gully we started to come under fire from above - a combination of wind and sun sending a lot of debris down from the iced-up rocks that cap the gully. With several larger sluffs also coming down a quick re-think was forced - we found some shelter under an overhanging rock at about 770m and after some debating decided that it was probably a good idea to head down rather than continue on into the bombardment with no obvious shelter ahead and an uncertain exit along (what we hoped was) the ramp below the summit.

A shame not to top out the gully, but we still had a great ski - Guy in action:

Oli:

Out of the gully, still steep, and exposed above small bluffs , but a bit more relaxed out of the firing line!:

With a bit of ingenuity, and some unleashing of the snow radar we managed to ski back to 150m above sea level, leaving a pleasant 20 min wander back down to the car...

All in all a great day out, hindsight says we should have continued on, but better to have the option to go back another time to finish it off...

Lofoten adventures - no more Fishy Tales

The last 2 weeks have been very frustrating - good weather during the week while I have been working for Petzl, but poor conditions at the weekends... in the meantime lots of big descents have been getting skied, not least the first repeat (29 years later) of Stefano de Benedetti's line on the East face of the Aiguille Blanche de Peuterey - followed a couple of days later by young Brit gun Ben Briggs nipping up for a solo repeat - good effort!

So to ease the FOMO I have sorted through the last few days worth of photos from Lofoten:

Geitgaljern

THE classic peak of the Lofoten islands for ski touring, this aesthetic summit had barely been skied this winter due to unstable conditions, but as the snowpack had improved greatly over the weekend this was high on our list. The direct line up the first steepening involved a short section of water ice up a narrow couloir, nice to get front points and axe working. Here, Will is just exiting the ice section back on snow again:



Nearing the summit pyramid of Geitgaljern - unfortunately a large group of Germans and their guides were out today (20 people seems quite a lot to me!) so it wasn't quite the wilderness experience it might have been!



Bit of a Scottish feel to things near the top, with heavily rimed rock:



The last 80m to the summit are up a narrow 45º snow tongue between rocks and ice to a small but perfectly formed summit... sadly the clouds had rolled in by this time so the (apparently) amazing views were hidden - on the South side the mountain drops almost vertically down to not far above sea level! - We will just have to come back another day...



Fortunately only a handful of the germans decided to come to the summit, so after a short wait for them to climb we dropped in - perfect deep powder, shame we couldn't see more to really let loose.
Chipie trying to spot the line between the rocks and ice, not so easy in the cloud when everything looks white from above:



Perfect snow though:



The majority of the big group had already started skiing and there was a proper bunfight on the go with bodies & skis everywhere and lots of people skiing very close together - not ideal on steep powdery slopes. We waited for a propitious moment and blasted by and clear of the danger... Lower down I hung a left to ski a steep line I had spotted between some water ice bulges and a rock rib, finding perfect deep soft powder, while Will & Chipie lined up a little ice-skiing (move over Xavier de le Rue!).

Chipie:



A gentle run down past some cross country tracks took us back to the beach and the car again:



For our last full day in Lofoten we headed West again, spotting some objectives for a future trip on the way:



Himmeltind was our first port of call, with 800m of fun-angled North facing slopes:



Don't ask (because I don't know..)!:



A stunning, atmospheric day, with snowy squalls interspersed with bright blue skies:



And despite near gale force winds on the summit ridge, perfect, perfect powder:



A stunning place to ski:







All the way to the beach:



Back at the car I suggested a change of location to the other side of the island in an attempt to escape the high winds on the ridges - this turned into a major result - we parked up beside Kira's place and set off for Kangerurtind - round 2 for me on the North-West slope - but quickly diverted to nearby Tindeltinden (I believe this means 'Peak-y Peak', though a native Norwegian speaker may correct me on this...) and what turned into the run of the trip for me. Making the most of the last minutes of a blue hole I did a super-fast turn around and dropped into a line of perfect thigh-deep powder - skiing slightly blind the line just kept on opening up, even through the lower crag section, amazing! Chipie & Will hadn't been quick enough on the draw so we sat out the squall and then they skied down. At this point Kira appeared with his dog Kaisa in tow so we all headed for Kangerurtind and finally got a chance to open up the guns on what is a fantastic slope - what a way to end the day! Back at the car at 7:30pm it certainly felt like we had made the most of the conditions...
No photos sadly as my memory card had finally been filled up :-( Fortunately, my memory stills works fine (for now) and I will remember those runs for a long time.

And that was it - a windy day on Strandtinden on the way back to the mainland gave us our last fix of Norwegian powder, until next time!



** Note ** I will most definitely be running another trip here in Spring 2014 - get in touch for more details!