Steep ski coaching Jan 2016

This week I have been running some steep ski coaching for a couple of IFMGA mountain guides and their friends. This has been a regular fixture for a few years now and is always great fun and a good challenge...

The first couple of days we spent around the 3 Valleys, revisiting and expanding on some technical and tactical subjects from previous years.

Photo ©andypmountainguide

One of the benefits of skiing with Andy Perkins is he always manages to get a couple of good snaps of me in action- quite a rare occurence!

Photo ©andypmountainguide

On day 3 we went off for a run down the Couloir Cairn on the North Face of Bellecote. As always this didn't disappoint and gave the team a long consistent steep run to put the previous days' work into practise...

Yesterday we went back up to La Plagne and had a good day throwing laps on the amazing terrain in the Bellecote bowl. Flat light in the afternoon upped the challenge a bit, but we were rewarded with some mellow powder turns later in the afternoon when the sun came back out...

Going for a short walk:

Reaping the rewards:

Jim S styling it up:

Ramping it up in the afternoon - Andy P throwing some turns on 50º:

Jim K cruising mellow powder in the afternoon sun:

Thanks to Jim S, Jim K, Pete and Andy for another great week - looking forward to our 2017 session already!

Conditions update:

La Plagne:

Bellecote North Face is very bony at the moment, but Cairn, Canadians and variants are all in reasonable condition (at time of writing) and there was quite a lot of traffic coming out of Petite Face Nord. The Bellecote bowl still has some chalky snow on shady slopes, but sunnier aspects are getting a bit crusty. Pistes seemed to be holding up well. Passage de Frête and similar South-facing descents to Champagny-le-haut were being skied, but the last part of these descents is thin and timing is crucial as the lower sections are also exposed to afternoon 'warm slides' (one person caught on Monday on the summer path down from the Combe de la Vélière...).

Couloir scratching video

A short edit of yesterday's couloir action - very impressed with the performance of my new Gopro Hero 4 Silver - straight out of the box, no fancy settings and it copes remarkably well with light & shade...

Couloir scratching - 6 Jan 2015 from Simon Christy on Vimeo.

Gebroulaz SW couloir + St Peres

Following on from yesterday's post on snow conditions in the Vanoise I went for a bit of a wander above Val Thorens today motivated by that rare combination of a day 'off' (lets forget about the admin etc), no kids to look after, a few new bits and bobs to try out, and a curiosity to see how the snow was.

First target was the SW couloir of the Mont Gebroulaz - the obvious dogleg couloir in the pic below:

From below the whole of the couloir looked to have a reasonable fill of snow (apart from the narrows at the bottom...) but I choose to climb the couloir rather than take the easy option of skinning round and dropping in from the summit. The advantage of not being lazy is that you get to check out the snow as you climb - as it turned out the looker's right side of the couloir was well-consolidated, but with a cheeky refrozen crust on top, while left of centre wind-blown snow had accumulated on top of varying degrees of looseness underneath. Avoidable up until the dogleg but caution & common sense prevailed when it was no longer possible to stay off the slabby accummulations as the couloir narrowed and turned.

Ready to roll:

Skiing down was 'interesting' - there was a really nice strip of snow about 1m50 wide - further left and the surface was definitely very shiny, further right and it would have been too risky...

Exiting the couloir I cut across for the short skin and bootpack up to the St Pères couloirs - heading for the 3rd option which I hadn't skied for years.

Looking back from the top of the bootpack; short but steep:

As expected it didn't look fantastic... but I wasn't expecting it to be quite [i]that[/i] firm - occasionally thin layers of soft snow gave a soft turn or two, but mostly it was a good work out for the edges!

Looking down from the col:

Still a good day to be out and up high stimulating some red blood cell creation. And all good training for something (not sure what...).

View back up the St Pères from about 1/2 way:

If you are heading out then watch out for firm slab overlying some really soft layers, and sharpen your edges for other aspects :-)

Video to follow shortly...

Aiguille des Saints Pères - Couloir Ouest

A quick hit this morning to try and kick-start some fitness and maybe sneak in some good skiing...

I had heard reports that the St Pères couloirs had a reasonable fill of snow, and with the Val Thorens ski area already open there was the reassurance of having a high roadhead and snow back to the car (quite a rare thing this December...).

Several couloirs line the face of the Saints Pères, but the right hand one is by far the steepest (and most aesthetic):

An 8:30 start saw me skinning up out of Val Thorens before the lifts opened, with 1000m vertical on the cards. Despite a gloomy morning in the valley it was actually quite clear, with just a bit of high cloud around the Aiguille de Peclet. Looking back towards the valley showed just how poor the early season snow situation is:

Looking up into the couloir from the approach slopes:

The skinning went quickly enough, but progress slowed on entering the couloir - the snow consistency was not great for skinning, even with couteaux on, but boot packing was slow going in the deep snow. The promise of a great ski down kept spirits up though and soon enough I came out at the col. The top of the couloir currently is as well filled in as I have ever seen it - just 3 metres or so of rocks which are too tight to ski through (with rocks under the snow too) but below that it was perfect - creamy, heavy powder on a fairly consistent base. In the past I have generally had to downclimb or rap the first 20 metres over exposed rocks!

Ready for some fun:

The descent was great - 400m of good creamy powder, and then by following the stream/gully lines which are well filled in I was able to ski back to within 50m of the piste edge without feeling like I was risking skis or limbs (there were a good number of 'skier vs rock' incidents when Val T opened recently for a weekend...).

Looking back up from partway down the couloir:

A good way to kick off some steeper skiing for this winter - although the couloir is graded 5.1 on the toponeige scale it doesn't often feel like it quite deserves the grade, but is a fantastic ski anyway!

Chipie's Line

Who needs Cham?

After a slightly 'ho-hum' day off the Midi on Monday checking out lines which generally weren't looking too good, Oli and I relocated back to my home ground, where I was confident we could score some good conditions... I knew that the North face of the Grande Casse was in good conditions, and originally we thought about doing a 'in-a-day' hit from the valley - but a combination of tired legs and sore feet from the Petit Mont Blanc walk out (see here), the thought of a 2200m vertical day, when neither of us was particularly fit and then a chance message from my friend Chipie over in Tignes set us off on a new adventure.

Chipie had talked in the past of a 'hidden line' on the Grande Casse with relatively easy - if slightly exposed and committing - access from the Grande Motte lifts in Tignes, and a beautiful 50º North-facing slope as the reward.

Oli on the NW face of the Motte, our access route in the distance up the snowy ridge:

Perfect powder below the col - not bad (well, incredible actually) for the 'access route':

Time for some boot-packing, with a real wilderness feel:

As we got to the top of the ridge it became clear that accessing the slope we originally planned to ski was not going to be a great idea, with a big traverse on 50º shale partially covered with snow, and the top of the main slope looking like a minefield of shark's teeth from close range. Not fancying a game of Russian roulette we opted for plan B, and skied great snow 150m back down the ridge we had climbed - a beautiful 45º pitch with big exposure on both sides:

Then it was time for an 'interesting' traverse out onto the main face, with some big cliffs lurking underneath:

And on to the main slope - a smooth 50º billiard table with good soft snow - perfect conditions!:

Time to relax as the angle eases:

After a short section of crust we then enjoyed 600m of perfect spring snow down to the start of the boot/skin back out:

Looking back up to the line - just left of centre:

A hot sweaty hike then even hotter skin eventually got us up to the Col du Palet where we had possible the best skiing I have ever done on piste in Tignes - perfectly groomed, nicely softened spring snow, and not another skier to worry about - that certainly doesn't happen when the lifts are open!

Getting back to Val Claret at 3pm we decided we should make the most of our day tickets, and headed back up the Grande Motte for a pleasant run down the North face on cold chalky snow:

Still not quite believing our luck with the conditions we cut across onto the Wall which was nicely softened spring snow... truly one of those rare 'Midas touch' days, where everything we skied turned to gold. Even later on, sat around a beer with Chipie, Oli & I couldn't stop smiling! Due to work and family commitments this may (hopefully not) be my last ski day of the winter, but if it is then what a day to end on!

Steep Vanoise 2014 - St Foy

On Thursday we made the (almost mandatory) trip to St Foy for day 4 of this year's Steep Vanoise week. As always, it delivered big style!

A short skin up to the Fogliettaz summit and we dropped in to the North face, and found some good cold soft snow (some might call it powder..!) - even 2 1/2 weeks after the last snowfall!

With such good snow to be skied (all things considered) we hung a hard right traverse below the top face and put skins on again to head up to the Col D'Argentiere and on to the top of Couloir Doudou.

Doudou looked rather unappealing so we headed back to the Col D'Argentiere, where I had spied a totally unskied shoulder line of good looking snow as we skinned up. Good choice as it turned out:

A late lunch in the sun below the Archeboc refuge, and we headed off down a nicely softened 'icy path of doom' and back to the car for a well-earned refreshment at the Monal...

Steep Vanoise Day 2 & 3

Day 2 of this year's Steep Vanoise week saw us making the obligatory pilgrimage to La Plagne for a run on the North Face of Bellecote. Cairn couloir had some nice chalky grippy snow in it (though definitely a more serious feel than when there is 2 feet of powder, as a slide would almost certainly end very badly...).

Vadim putting in the first turns:

Amazingly we had the face pretty much to ourselves for the whole descent, with just 1 group passing by underneath on the traverse in from Petit Face Nord.

Rod lower down in Cairn:

Today we went up into Courchevel and headed off on probably my favourite tour in the area, the Breche Portetta via Les Glacerets.

After 2 hours of skinning and a short ski down the top of Les Glacerets from the Rocher de Plassa we climbed up into the halls of the mountain kings:

The Breche has become a victim of its own success (aided undoubtedly by www sites like skitour) and sadly the top part of the couloir had had so many people side-slipping down it that a side-slip was the only reasonable option for the top 45º+ section.

Vadim below the first steep section:

Vadim and Amanda partway down the main couloir:

Vadim again in the more open 2nd half:

A happy team! Rod, Amanda and Vadim below the main couloir

The big face below the couloir was pretty soft & slushy, but eminently rippable on fat skis! Some gentle cruising on a forest track finally took us down to Pralognan where our taxi pick-up was waiting to take us back to a well-earned beer on the St Roc terrace in Bozel...

Grande Ciamarella North face

So, I hadn't skied for a month (Apr 11th to be precise) for a variety of reasons, and having to deposit wife & child at the airport on Saturday scuppered any full weekend plans... time for a day mission to fulfill a promise to a mate.

A short night 'car camping' was followed by an early start -

5:28 am - leave car in L'Ecot (2000m)
5:33 am - leave car in L'Ecot again, having returned to pick up the ice axe I had forgotten...
6:35 am - over the hump at 2570m and down to the Plan des Evettes - groups heading off in all directions from the hut
8:00 am - Col Tonini (3200m) - First sight of 'La Face du Jour'



The north face of the Grande Ciamarella has been on the hit list for a long time, but is exceedingly rarely in condition. I had been watching the progress of the face this spring and it had been looking better and better...

Early start French team from the hut (cheats :-)) dropping onto the upper face. A few mm of soft over a hard base, hmmm.



The face proper is about 450m of steepness - not very big in alpine terms but it hovers consistently around 50º the whole time - definitely feels steeper than say the NNE of the Courtes...

French skier in here if you look closely - view downwards from approx half-height:



10:30 am - Grande Ciamarella summit (3670m) - 8km and 1750m vertical in the bag (got to count the extra for the drop into the Plan des Evettes). Tired legs due to a month of inactivity!

I'm not sure how much of this fella is normally showing, but if its a full statue then there is a fair bit of snow on the summit!!



Time for action - I have since seen a report from the Saturday of soft snow over a firm base - alot can change in 24 hours... there was the merest dusting (in places) over some really quite hard snow - spicy times!

Mid slope:



And looking back at the face from Col Tonini - another French team on the top section - busy busy on here today!:



12:15 pm - back at the car & time for a brew - mission accomplished.

Apologies for lack of action photos... solo mission drawbacks!

This descent was for Will who should have been here too, RIP mate.