Aiguille du Fruit NW couloir

A chance message from Yorick last night decided today's plan... I was going to go for a solo recce around the 3 Valleys, but instead we switched on 'mission mode' for a flog up (and blast down) the NW couloir on the Aiguille du Fruit. It has been a few years since I have been up here so it was nice to be back in such good conditions!

Pointe de la Rechasse

A quick blast up the Pointe de la Rechasse today with Hoops, Matt and Chris, followed by the best descent I have ever had from here (by a long stretch) - 1400m vertical of perfect powder all the way down to the Pralognan pistes!

More Courchevel powder!

Just when you think it can't get any better, it does!

Last day with the BSSG crew yesterday was very deep!

Today was a (very) rare day off for me 'sans kids' so I took the opportunity to revisit some of Will & my old stomping grounds form a few winters back, while the world and his dog headed up high for a powder bunfight...The only tracks I crossed were my own, 3 laps of perfection (with a bit of effort to get in & out...)!

Courchevel powder heaven 15 Jan 2016 from Simon Christy on Vimeo.

Winter 14/15 slideshow

I have finally got round to putting together a slideshow of the best photos form last winter!

Going through all the photos reminded me of how many good days there were and how much great snow we skied, despite general perception of a 'poor' winter (and it certainly wasn't a vintage year by any means...). Just goes to show that if you stay flexible there is almost always good snow to be found somewhere...

Offpisteskiing.com Winter 1415 Slideshow from Simon Christy on Vimeo.

Maurienne magic 2014

I have just finished a week of coaching for a group from the Eagles Ski Club, based in Bramans in the Maurienne valley. This is my 4th (or 5th?) week in this area in recent years, and once again it didn't fail to deliver, with barely a queue (despite both Paris and Marseille being on holiday) and powder a-plenty.
Through the week we skied at Bonneval-sur-Arc, Val Cenis, La Norma and Valfréjus - all great in their own way (and all with day ticket prices of about €25...!).

La Norma:

Bonneval-sur-Arc:

Couloir de la Fontaine, Bonneval-sur-Arc:

Valfréjus:

Couloir des Militaires:

A happy team below the Couloir des Militaires:

More pics to follow in a second post...

Off piste conditions update - Courchevel 5 Jan 2013

A quick update on conditions around Courchevel and the Vanoise currently:

On Saturday it was mild and wet, with rain up to about 2000m, but snow falling above this. By this morning the trees were white down to St Bon (~1000m). I had a couple of hours in hand and headed for my old stomping ground of Courchevel 1650 to test out my new work-tools compliments of Whitedot Skis :

Review to follow...

Snow conditions were good in the 1800 - 2100m bracket with ~20cm of light powder, above that the snow was still good, but with evidence of wind during the fall - lots of 'duning' visible (not to mention soft snow slides on almost every aspect):

Around 2300m pretty much everything had fallen off during the morning's PIDA blasting - though there was still some takers for the bits in-between!:

A good day for some mellow runs & meadow skipping:

High winds were visible on the crests, and although the avalanche risk forecast has dropped from 4 to 3 care will still need to be taken on steeper slopes as there is a persistant weak layer lurking from the early winter. Additionally the snowpack remains thin, and there are definitely plenty of rocks just under the surface, particularly near ridges and any convexities where the wind has worked the snow a bit.

The scenery is still good though:

Around the Vanoise friends reported wind-affected powder up above the Refuge de la Vanoise, Val Thorens & Orelle reportedly even more wind-affected than Courchevel, and a ski instructor and his client had a lucky escape in an avalanche incident in La Plagne (Les Bourtes area) losing nothing more than their equipment fortunately.

Current advice - keep it mellow, and watch out for (invisible) rocks!

Review - Dynafit Mercury boots

Recently I took the plunge and splashed out on some new touring boots - the intention being to get a pair in the 1.5 - 1.7 Kg bracket which increasingly offers boots which will drive a big ski really well while not being too heavy for the uphill/climbing.

Last winter I was mostly skiing Dynafit Titans (big and beefy, but heavy), Head alpine boots (Raptor 120), and also spent some time in Dynafit's TLT5 Performance boot (super light, but a bit narrow for my foot even with some shell-stretching, and in my opinion missing a third buckle for good heel hold - full review here).
Seb at Sole Boot Lab in Chamonix took care of boot selection and fitting and I have now skied a pair of Dynafit Mercurys for a week so can offer some first opinions...

Weight. No matter what the manufacturer's blurb tells you, there is no substitute for getting the scales out - the results are as follows (for one size 28.0 boot):

TLT5 - stock liner + superfeet 'green' footbed: 1.253 Kg

Titan - Palau liner + Superfeet cork footbed: 2.087 Kg

Mercury - stock liner + Sidas footbed: 1.734 Kg

- just slipping outside the 1.7 Kg upper limit I had set, but still feel relatively light on the foot - only a big uphill day will tell though!


The Mercury is a 3 buckle boot - though the 40mm booster strap more than happily doubles for a 4th buckle on the cuff. The buckles remain low profile when closed - should be fine for climbing/boot-packing. In the open position the cuff buckle has a hinge point to enable it to sit closer to the boot shell - one of the downsides of the TLT5 was the buckle which stuck out a long way in 'open' position - check out the photo below to see the difference between the two:

Fit-wise I have a narrow ankle, high arch, and wide forefoot. The Mercury's fit out of the box is not bad for me, though I will need to widen the toe box a little for maximum comfort. For comparison they feel narrower than a Titan, but substantially wider than the TLT5

Conditions in the French Alps are a little scratchy at the moment, and most of my work last week was on piste (for once) so I haven't tried these out with any fat skis yet - last week I was skiing some Fischer Watea 88s and the boots were quite happy to really crank it out on piste. Good support, great heel hold, and a progressive flex pattern. The cuff height is similar to a Titan (see photo below - from left - TLT5, Mercury, Titan):

The boot sole length of 314 mm (for a 28.0) is only 8 mm down on the Titan (as opposed to 307 mm for the TLT5 !), so if you are swapping down from a bigger boot this should fall within the adjustment range of most tech bindings (eg Dynafit Vertical/Radical or Plum)

Downsides? During thermo-forming one of the liners developed a crease just above the heel on the instep - manageable this week as my heel has been locked down in ski mode, but could be an issue on the uphill and I will be heading back to the shop for a re-form or new inner. Apparently this has been a regular problem with the stock Dynafit liners!
Just like the TLTs, the lock mechanism for ski mode is integrated into the cuff buckle so a cover of some sort will have to be DIY-ed to enable light closure of the cuff without locking the boot for more technical climbing

So far I am really happy with these boots and can't wait to get out on some bigger skis and see how they perform...

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!