Off Piste Perfection Tarentaise

This week I was running the Off Piste Perfection coaching week, a collaboration between www.offpisteskiing.com and Jagged Globe.

Based in Bourg St Maurice this is a mobile week of off piste coaching, and with les Arcs, La Plagne, La Rosiere/La Thuile, St Foy and Val D'Isere/Tignes all within easy reach there is great potential to follow the good snow, weather conditions and pick the best terrain to develop everyone's skiing.

Sunday was forecast snowy and windy, and there are few better places than Les Arcs in those conditions, with lots of open easy tree-skiing to kick the week off:

Stuart checking out some ski heritage at lunchtime in Arcs 1600:

On Monday the forecast was still cloudy and snowy so we headed for the trees of St Foy. Sadly the Marquise and Aiguille chairs didn't open (partly due to a problem with the Gazex avalanche control systems! There is still lots of potential low down though, and we had a very productive day mixing technique and tactics on the lower meadows and tree lines:

On Tuesday we went back to Les Arcs and had a great day in the trees around 1950 and 2000, taking the tactics developed earlier in the week on to steeper angles:

Wednesday saw us heading up to Val D'Isere to make use of the steep terrain for a technically-focussed day which saw everyone making some great changes to their skiing.

The weather forecast was good for Thursday and we headed back up to Les Arcs with a view to finding some untracked snow away from the masses:

Friday was the last day for the team and we chose St Foy as the venue to find some testing snow and slopes to put the week's progress into action:

Thanks to Stuart, Ann and Elaine for their great company through the week, and willingness to make the most of the tricky weather in the first few days!!

Freeride Briançon

One part of the winter is slowly drawing to a close, while another is just beginning.

Last week I was running a Freeride Briançon course for Jagged Globe and www.offpisteskiing.com. Based in Villeneuve, in the heart of the Serre Chevalier ski area we kept to a flexible brief, going wherever we thought might give the best skiing.

Day 1 was a local day, exploring the easily accessible off piste in Serre Chevalier, where conditions were OK but not great, but made for good coaching conditions to set up some common goals for the week.
Serre Che's tribute to the Happy Mondays?

On day 2 we headed over the Col du Lautaret for a quick pilgrimage to La Grave - again conditions were slightly underwhelming compared to the previous 2 weeks Vanoise powder frenzy, but again another great day ay a classic venue:

Days 3 and 4 came with mixed forecasts, so we stayed local as Serre Che has some great tree skiing - as it turned out the cover was not needed and we managed some good runs down the Balme couloir and a few other local classics:

The weather patterns had changed through the week, with (yet) another 'Retour d'Est' dumping snow on the Italian side of the range, so after a consultation with an old friend of mine who runs his family's ski shop in St Veran we set off for the Queyras to a little known ski area... where we hit a jackpot of waist deep powder, and faceshots from first turn to last... absolutely incredible!:

After such an incredible day it was always going to be a hard act to follow. The best of the snow had been skied at Resort X, so another Italian option was pulled out of the hat. This was my first time working in Sestriere but I will most definitely be back - great terrain, good coffee, and great food!:

Thanks to Gavin and Dave for the insider info, and thanks to Chas and Steve for a great week - here's to next year's course!

This pretty much wraps up my Alpine work for the winter - fast approaching are 2 weeks ski touring in the magical Lofoten Islands, before a brief break at home and then a 'mates trip' to Baffin Island for some Arctic couloir skiing!

Chamonix Freeride course + conditions update

Last week I was in Chamonix for the offpisteskiing.com & Jagged Globe Freeride course, working alongside IFMGA Mountain Guide Andy Lanham.

With the Chamonix valley definitely in a spring snow cycle but foehn winds forecast for the first few days we kicked off the week at the Grands Montets skiing smooth chalky hardpack and drilling the team in avalanche rescue techniques:

On Monday and Tuesday we headed over to Courmayeur where there was up to 30cm of powder in places off the Youla as and when the visibility opened up (and it was amazingly quiet as always!):

Rian:

Mark:

Of course no trip to Italy is complete without sampling some of the local wares:

On Wednesday we took the whole team for a run off the Punta Hellbronner down the Toula Glacier, finding creamy powder at the top, turning rapidly to spring lower down:

Once again Mark took advantage of the fine food on offer...:

After lunch Andy took Mark and Rian off down the Vallée Noire back to Chamonix, while Chas, David, Pete and I headed over to Courmayeur for a coaching session.

David in action:

On Thursday, with a spring cycle setting up again, we headed for Brevent in the morning, catching the Hotel face in great condition. Andy, Mark & Rian then continued on to ski the Aiguille Pourrie North face into Combe de la Gliere.

Mark:

Yesterday 'team energetic' headed for the Col du Belvedere and skied good chalky snow down to Le Buet, while the rest of us went back to Les Grands Montets for a mix of chalky cold snow and spring snow, along with a slightly cloudy eclipse...

Chas in action:

Thanks to Chas, Pete, David, Rian and Mark for a great week, and also to Andy.


To summarise conditions as of Friday:

Brevent/Flegere - great spring snow to be skied if you get your timing right, but by 12:30 most off piste is getting too soft

Aiguilles Rouges touring - Andy, Mark and Rian went over the Col du Belvedere on Friday and found good snow on the descent down to Le Buet, with skis on pretty much all the way to the bottom (though this won't last long if it stays warm...)

Grands Montets - chalky snow still on North aspects (skier's left of Lavancher bowl, Grand Mur, under Bochard etc etc), spring snow on the Westerly aspects

Aiguille du Midi - by all accounts all the classic Vallee Blanche itineraries are in good condition

Punta Hellbronner - the Toula Glacier was in good spring condition - timing is everything again... Teams had skied under the cables - cover looks good

Courmayeur - there was still good cold snow off the Youla & Arp on Wednesday, Canale Vesse in good condition though in the right branch the ice bulge is becoming more pronounced and needs a confident approach - the stream crossing is tricky, with a muddy scramble along the other side

Up higher it seems like South-facing slopes are in reasonable condition (Y on Aig. d'Argentiere, S couloir on Chardonnet), while North-facing slopes are definitely still showing the effects of the strong Northerly winds from a week or two back...

Lemmings

Some days on the mountain you just have to shake your head, and yesterday was one of those days...

Les Arcs, risk level High (4), obvious signs of slab releases during avalanche control work and what happens?
A powder frenzy is what happens...

We headed towards the Grand Col chair for a lap or two of the unpisted pistes to warm up. On the way up the chair the slopes to the looker's right of the pistes on the steep shoulder dropping towards Combe de la Commune had 3 obvious slab releases. Half-jokingly I said to my group "I wonder how long it will be until the first tracks go in?", sure enough as we went back up the chair tracks were already appearing, and as always people start nibbling further across and further out...
We put skins on for a short climb up to a minor summit with a safe shoulder line to ski, with a grandstand view of the Grand Col slopes. One minute later, as skiers went ever further right, a skier triggered a slab and was taken for a good 70/80 metre ride, fortunately ending up on the surface, though from a distance appearing to limp and possibly minus a ski:

I called the incident in to the pisteurs just to make them aware, hung up the phone, and not 5 minutes after the first incident a second slab was triggered further over again, by an instructor (clad all in red...) leading his group:

Again, fortunately, nobody was buried.

3 minutes later, as the instructor was walking his group out, a 3rd slab was triggered inbetween the first two. Again the skier was lucky and managed to stay near the side of the slide, but the slab stepped down to a lower layer, and travelled further than the other two, stopping not far above the group from incident 2!:

And in the meantime more skiers appeared over the horizon...

So to paraphrase an acquaintance who knows a thing or two about avalanches - 'It's not f*ckin' rocket science!' (ideally said in an East End accent) - High avalanche risk, steep slopes, obvious recent avalanche activity on similar aspect, angle and elevation - what more information do you need?

In other news there has been great skiing to be had staying on safer (note safER not safe) sub-30º slopes and in tight tree lines:

Some pictures of this week's Off Piste Performance group:

Off Piste Improvers course - Val D'Anniviers

Last week I was in the Val D'Anniviers running the offpisteskiing.com and Jagged Globe Off Piste Improvers course.With a good snowfall on the Saturday and reasonably stable weather forecast for the week we really hit the jackpot with conditions - still finding perfect untracked powder on Friday afternoon!

From our hotel base in Grimentz we had easy access to the great skiing in both Grimentz and Zinal which offer great terrain for skiers looking to step up their off piste skiing. A big thank you goes out to Chas, Peter, Pete, Kate, Linda and Aiko for their enthusiasm and willingness to take new ideas on board - everyone really stepped up their game throughout the week!

Day 1 - starting the week in style with powder and blue skies!:

A run down past the Moiry dam on day 2:

Day 3 - still good powder in Zinal's 'Middle Bowl':

A trip away to Chandolin & St Luc - still good powder even on the sunny side!:

In the Chamois couloirs:

Ending the week as it began, 600m+ vertical of perfect untracked powder straight off the lifts!: