Tuesday 6 May 2014

Petit Mont Blanc - Bonatti couloir

Guy, Oli and I have talked about this line a few times in past springs but never quite had the conditions or free time at the right time to get in here. On Sunday, along with Jon & Rhiannon we hit the jackpot with great conditions - 1000m of good cold snow with a stunning back drop!

Guy on the first abseil in - 15m gets you to a second anchor, from where 20m was enough to hit skiable snow:


Rhi at the bottom of the second ab:


Trusty steads for the day - my Whitedot Skis Ranger Carbonlites even took their own 'selfie', with the West Face of Mont Blanc as backdrop (and looking very thin this year sadly...):


Yum yum:


Rhi high in the couloir:


Oli:


Guy throwing some shapes:


'The gift that keeps on giving' - from the top the glacier looks reasonably close, but the more pitches you ski, the more you realise it is still a long way down!

Jon:


And finally... 1000m of continuous steepness later:


Happy gang!


Balancing act on the moraine ridge - the start of a 12km walk out (yes my feet are still sore now...):


Thanks to Guy, Oli, Jon and Rhi for great company and to Whitedot Skis for the Ranger Carbonlites - the more time I have spent on them this winter the more impressed I have been

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