Half Term week is a very good time to ski off piste

It might seem counter intuitive to come skiing at half term when both the English and French schools are on holiday if your looking for piece and quiet. But if your primary goal is to ski off-piste then its good bet. This is probably because parents are wrestling their kids into ski school and because the media seems to whip its self into a frenzy [just before the half term] about how dangerous the avalanche risk is. The result is that no body seemingly ventures off the piste.


On the Monday Francis Bridgeman and I skied laps of trackless snow of the back of Le Tour and saw virtually no one.


On Tuesday it was the same at Grands Montets . Once we got off the top cable car we saw no one on the entire descent all the way to the car park at the bottom.



Wednesday at Flegere was the same. In fact it became quite disconcerting- where was everyone ? What do they know that we don't?


On the Thursday we were joined by some of Francis friend Amanda, Melanie and Chris. They were all parets who had managed to off load their kids for the morning so that they too could ski far away from the crowds. We skied off the top of grands Montets all the way back to Argentiere taking a line skiers right of the Chalet Lognan. The theme continued: we saw no one.

Off piste and personal... with Mark Seaton, mountain guide

Short interview with me by Francesca White , journalist for the Tatler writing a piece for Wimbledon Clinics blog.

Off piste and personal... with Mark Seaton, mountain guide

Just going out side and I may be some time.

Anyone who has ever spent time in the mountains will have at some stage mimicked captain Oates famous last words Yet it is not often that it is said in the company of a direct descendant of Robert Falcon Scott - Scott of the Antarctic.


It is a standard joke between Lucy-Kate Hunt [Scotts great granddaughter] and her good friend Catherine Lewis. Catherine never misses an opportunity to weave the quote into the days ski-touring adventures.

The long standing plan was for us to drive to Gressoney , stay two nights in the very comfortable Orestes Hütte, hopefully climb the Vincent Pyramid and take advantage of the wonderful off-piste the Monte-Rosa ski area has to offer.

The plan fell apart when we arrived in the car park at Staffel. There was no snow. Just ribbons of white down some pistes. Added to which the whole resort had shut down because it was so windy.

PLAN B - So often in this game it is about thinking up a solution quickly. We drove to La Thuile and made arrangements to stay at the Maison de la Neige. This involves taking the lift out of the village and then skiing down to the Hotel which is situated on the [closed] road to the Petit St Bernard road.
The first lift was open yet by the time we were ready to take the second lift, the wind had increased and it closed in front of us. Added to which the pisteurs closed the piste to the hotel.

Eventually I tracked down the head Pisteur [who was also a Mountain Guide] and he gave me permission to use the closed piste. A very atmospheric ski took us to the fabulous hotel and a very cosy night. [The hotel has an excellent cellar too]


The next day the wind had dropped and the sky was crystal clear. We left the hotel at 8.30am and skied down the road and through the meadows back to the car . A short drive to Arpy where we skinned up to the summit of Punte Crocce.






From the summit we hit some very good snow and managed some very good turns;




Saturday we were back in Chamonix. It snowed over night, but was clear and sunny. I had mixed feelings about doing the Crochue /Berard ski tour because although it is fantastic , it is also arguably the most popular day tour in the world.

In fact no matter how bad or in experienced you may be as a ski-tourer you can be certain that there will be someone worse than you. AND indeed there was!

It was busy but after the first col eveyone fanned out and we found ourselves alone looking back up at the magical descent of the Berard Vallee.

The ski down was some of the best skiing of the season.

Big Melt

Season continues to be weird. One minute it promises to get really good with lots of snow , then it starts raining again. The key to getting good off-piste skiing is to be flexible and mobile.
Reuben and Fiona joined me for 4 days .

On the Tuesday we skied off piste off the back of Le Tour .



Wednesday we drove through the Mt Blanc tunnel , took the new Sky Way lift and skinned up to the Col D'Entreves . A particularly memorable lunch for Reuben & Fiona's 42nd wedding anniversary.



On the Thursday we went to Courmayeur skied to a very late lunch at the Plan Checrouit where we we duly entertained by the mad Anna.

On Friday we skied at Les Grands Montets which was above the clouds and very stunning.

Drink as Much Ski as Much : The Excess Men.

They don't like change : Over the last 20 years they turn up on the same last weekend in January , stay in the Hotel de la Couronne , drink in the Office bar , dance on tables the in the Savoy Bar ,induce severe hangovers , BUT to their ever lasting credit they are always ready to go skiing or ski touring with me the next morning.

This last Friday and Saturday we had two particularity memorable trips. On the Friday , I shoe-horned them into the car and we drove to Combloux where we climbed the Petit Croisse Baulet. The view from the top was fabulous.



Yet what was particularly special was the descent off the back of the peak all the way down to the village of Le Plan.



Seemingly the day was so good that the "boys" , James, Kevin ,David, Pete, Adam, Matt did what they always do and went out to celebrate until the small hours.

So when I arrived at 8.30 am the next morning they were a little worse for wear. They claimed it was rather like altitude sickness. Again we squeezed into the car [which stank of the previous nights garlic snails] and I drove all the way to Les Contamines.
Despite a reasonable forecast the weather wasn't good. It started to snow heavily and there was thick impenetrable fog , which they claimed created motion sickness [I wonder why?]

I suggested a strategic coffee stop which was eagerly lept upon.


The coffee stop seemed to have a magical effect. They sobered up and the weather cleared up .



We were able to continue with the plan which was to skin up to the Col de La Fenetre and then make the long ski descent all theway to the valley floor and virtually back to the car.

Klosters : If there is a better skiing resort show me it.

If you can arrange it try and get to Klosters just before the
World Economic Forum which is held in the neighbouring resort of Davos. The reason is shortly after leaving the motorway at Chur there is a road block with Tanks and the Swiss Army [who contrary to popular belief are as a useful as a chocolate Tea Pot]:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/world-economic-forum-swiss-soldiers-sent-home-from-davos-for-using-cocaine-a6828776.html

But the road block has the effect of dissuading all other skiers from entering the valley. The net result is that you have the resort to yourselves. Add a fresh dump of nearly 2 meters of cold fresh snow and you are in skiing heaven.



John Cackett and I set off from Chamonix with the intention of skiing in Villars on the way. This didnt happen . There was thunder and lightening [not normal in early January] and lashing rain- also not normal but increasingly common. All that happened is we got soaking wet just getting out of the car. Not a great start , but so often the most memorable trips begin inauspiciously.

Next we drove to Klosters , negotiated the road block and arrived at the iconic Wynegg Hotel. [The Wynegg could claim to be one of the corner stones of the development of alpine skiing.] Then it snowed . It snowed for the next week.


During this time two of John's sons Finn and Leo joined us. Leo is a renowned photographer with a portfolio of some of the most famous sports stars in the world. He even took a photo of me:



Finally the good weather arrived and the combination of fabulous snow and blue skies was enjoyed by virtually no one other than the four of us.

Winter so far

The end of November we got a good cold dump of snow . Everyone was happy Eddy the new Bernese Mountain Dog had setttled in and things were looking good.

Then that was it sun sun sun . Come Christmas all the snow had gone.

Eddy now considerably bigger was confused : "What the hell has happened to all the snow?" he said .

So to the tricky question of skiing. Luckily the weather had been beautiful [hence no snow] which it meant it was possible to go high. I always think that Les Diablerets is a very good option and although it is an hour and halfs drive from Chamonix it is worth it. I went there twice in a week once with Peter Whelan and then with Stephen Yeates and Steve Trantum. The snow and conditions were excellent..

A couple of days later again with the 2 Steves we headed through the Mt Blanc tunnel and up to the [I believe] unique revolving cable car : The Helbronner. From its summit we entered the Vallee Blanche via an elevator followed by a tunnel which leads directly to the glacier.

Instead of skiing down the Vallee Blanche [due to a lack of the essential ingredient] We skinned up to the col de Entreve where we were treated to spectacular views in every direction - particularly Mt Blanc :


We then skied back the way we came on some very good snow but at the same time avoiding the double-decker bus swallowing crevasses.
A day later we skied at Grands Montets. Unusually for the Chamonix lift company they had made the effort and managed to open the top of Les Grands Montets where we found some excellent snow. This lead very nicely to the Chalet de Lognan where Eric [better known in Argentiere for his dread lock] is the chef in charge of cheese dishes [which were very good.]

Eventually there was a change in the weather - no more blue skies, but instead rain . Rain rain rain,but at least it would be snowing somewhere? Well actually no. It was just rainat all skiing altitudes. Then it snowed. Then it rained. All this resulted in a massive avalanche risk. A few days past and the weather and snow conditions settled down: momentarily.

Leo Vita-Finzi took a day off from his work with the UN in Geneva to ski with me. We failed to get past he door at Grands Montets because it closed in front of us due to horrendous winds. We headed down to Les Houches which had excellent snow in the morning but when we ventured out after lunch it was raining..

On the 10th January Peter Whelan and I were due to ski together. It was raining hard in Chamonix. Anywhere was going to be better than staying in the valley. A quick look at the meteo showed that through the Mt Blanc Tunnel it was a good deal colder and snowing hard. We went to La Thuile where we had astonishing skiing and a very good lunch

Dent du Midi. A very long "Walk"

The Dent du Midi is a magnificently striking mountain viewed from a far. The Swiss guide book describes it as an "Extraordinary edifice of stone" especially when viewed from Rhone valley. However nose up it is a tottering pile of crap. It has several summits which make up its ridge of "dents." At each end there is a Cime. The east Cime is pretty much untenable unless it is glued together by snow and ice. If not then a strong belief in ones immortality is a necessary bit of kit to have with you. In the middle is the Dent Jaune . This is an anomaly in that it is a very good climb. I did a few years back in 2006 with my very good friend and client Peter Little whom I did so much exploratory climbing with. At the west end is the Haute Cime - the true summit and can be reached without stepping on a glacier and without specialized mountaineering kit [in the summer]

This was to be our objective. Vin,Tony,Dave and I drove around to Champery, and set off from the Paradis Car park on a beautiful Saturday morning. We walked up through a very uninteresting forest following a very boring path for over an hour. Eventually we broke out of the forest to be treated to beautiful views of Champery and in the distance the Rhone valley. The path then snakes around some cliffs before going through a gorge where you turn left and head up a valley to the Susanfe Hut.



A very cosy and considering it was late in the season ,a very busy hut. We enjoyed a sociable evening and the food was washed down with a couple of bottles of the local rouge. Inevitably we were presented with insipid dessert which seems to be part and parcel of staying in Swiss Huts - This time: apple-puree. Baby food.

Breakfast was at 6.00am and we were away by 6.30am.At this time of the year it is still dark so we set off with head torches and plodded up to the col du Susanfe in just over an hour.



A pause and a drink and we were off up the Haute Cime proper.There was a surprising amount of snow around which did a lot to enhance the scene because without it you could have thought you were on some lifeless planet - acres of shale.

It might be "just a walk" but its over 1100 vertical meters from the hut to the top. It took us a lung busting 4 hours to get there. But it was worth it as the views were very, very good. Mt Blanc to the south.

Lake Geneva and the Oberland to the north.



Now all was left was the matter of going home. This was to be a brutal 2000 meter descent, back the way we came, stopping briefly at the hut just long enough to buy some drinks and for the legs to seize up. By the time we arrived back at the car we were knackered. Dents du Midi may be only a walk but you underestimate it at your peril.

A trip to the Dolomites.

Peter Folkman and I drove from Chamonix to Cortina d'Ampezzo. It is along way. Past Aosta,past Turin,past Milan and then turn left at Venice and head up into the Dolomites. We arrived mid afternoon just in time for a couple of Aperols [Italy's most popular cocktail] sitting in the sunny main square watching the world go by.

On the Sunday we decided to warm up by heading up to the Tre Cima Laverado where we traversed the Paternkofel via ferratta.

This particular one starts in a tunnel.
In the past when I have climbed this via ferratta it has proved to be a very good introduction. However unbeknown to me the descent gulley on the far side had collapsed and the route followed a very long detour. The detour was indeed a very fine one and significantly enhanced the quality of the route. However it did spit us out in the wrong valley and consequently left us with a long unwanted walk back to the car.

On the Monday we decided that our legs needed less of a pounding and so we opted to climb on the Cinque Torri where we climbed the uber classic "Via delle Guide" in absolutely perfect autumn weather. In the afternoon we wandered around the outdoor museum where they have rebuilt the WWI front line trenches very close to the climbing.


On the Tuesday we elected to head to what is considered to be Cortina's most impressive via Ferratta -Punta Anna. The weather was indifferent but as so often in the alps we climbed through the cloud.



On the Wednesday it lashed it down. We did attempt to visit one of the Messner Mountain Museums but this ended in farce. We arrived at what we were lead to believe was the museum entrance only to discover that it was more complicated than that and involved a shuttle bus [driver? No where to be seen] followed by a walk. Walking anywhere in the lashing rain seemed unappealing. We bailed and headed for Chamonix.

Back in Chamonix on the Thursday we awoke to beautiful weather and a sprinkling of new snow down to the trees below 2000meters.Our plan was to climb on the slabs above the Mer de Glacé.
Our plan was almost thwarted by non other than the French Prime Minister who was on a visit to Chamonix. Monsieur Valls was to be treated to a helicopter ride which was to culminate in him watching a PGHM winching exercise from inside the helicopter.
The winching was on the route Peter and I had chosen to climb. Luckily I am on good terms with Captain Ribbes the PGHM top man in Chamonix and we quickly agreed that it would be fine to climb the route next door. The net result is we got "ring side seats" for the demonstration.


And Manuel Valls got to see some real climbers.

Traverse of the Matterhorn 4478m

This is an account of an ascent of the Matterhorn via the lion Ridge in Italy followed by the descent of the Hornli Ridge into Switzerland. Our climb was made even more special because it coincided with the 150 year anniversary of the 1st ascent of the Matterhorn via the Hornli Ridge. The first ascent was seemingly cobbled together at the last minute by a bunch of toffs, Swiss and French mountain guides and admittedly the very accomplished mountaineer yet possibly over achiever Edward Whymper. It is extremely well documented that half the team did not make it back.



Attempting a traverse like this out of the normal season has its advantages and disadvantages. The clear advantage is that the mountain isn't mobbed by loads of other climbers. Nor is it so warm and often the weather is more stable. The disadvantages are that the route had a lot of late season snow on it. We didn't know if this would make the route more difficult or impossible. In addition the mountaineering infrastructure [cable cars , mountain huts etc] begins to close down.

I say begins, but in actual fact it had already closed down in Italy.Thus leaving us no where to stay and a massive long approach walk to get in position. We started by taking the lift formerly known as the Klein Matterhorn, but now bizarrely renamed the Alpine Glacier Mountain Paradise to its summit and then walked [and fell down] the summer ski piste until we arrived at the very comfortable Theodul Refugio where we spent the night. Next morning we left at about 7.00am and walked down the pistes towards Cervina. A more inauspicious start to our trip is hard to imagine. We were now below the summer skiing and Cervina without snow is not a pretty site. We arrived at the lowest cable car in Cervina- Plan Maison , turned right and started the 1345 meter ascent to the Carrel bivy, stopping en route by the frustratingly closed Abruzzi Refugio to fill our water bottles. [The Carrel bivy doesn't have a reliable water supply.]



I cannot get my head around the fact that this is only a bivy hut by the fact there is no guardian. It is easily busy enough to warrant one. Despite it being low season it was packed and because there was no guardian to police the place a sort of chaos ensued. It doesn't bare thinking about what it would be like in high season. [Oh yes I remember it was closed because the summer heatwave had precipitated huge rock fall.]

Inside the hut was quite miserable: It was freezing even though Charles Sherwood is looking so happy , in fact his teeth are chattering:



Soon after dinner our moral was "boosted" by the return of party of 3 who had spent 15 hours failing to get any where near the top. Still at least they returned...

Breakfast didn't come around fast enough . We were off at 5.00am. Immediately we were in a queue behind two parties. The first were so scarred of the overhanging combination of rope and chain that they freaked out and were passed by Charles and I and another Guide and his client. Fortunately I decided to tuck in behind this Guide and it was therefore he who took the rock on the helmet and not me. Despite being sick and very dizzy he promised he would be okay and so we forged ahead and immediately found ourselves alone.

The route is consistently steep and intimidating and strenuous. It is far more difficult than the Hornli. Dawn broke and we found ourselves on the distinctive flat section of the ridge before the final very steep tower. Progress along the flat bit was slower than anticipated because it is in fact full of notches that had to be negotiated by firstly climbing down into them and then back up again, while not actually making much useful progress. It was at one of these notches that we were caught up by a soloing American climber. Although he caught us up he was reluctant to pass us and wanted to become my 2nd client of the day. I rather view gaining another client half way up a route is rather like a ship taking on salvage. My solution was to avoid the discussion by dithering around ,fiddling in my rucksack and generally not moving till he got bored and decided he would be better off on his own.

More fixed ropes then an overhanging rope ladder then finally the summit slopes.

We arrived on the Italian summit at 10.30am and then traversed to the Swiss summit.

The descent of the Hornli ridge was snowy. However the snow was neve and it actually made it easier than when it is just rock. It also made route finding easier too. We arrived back at the Hornli Hut around 3.00pm stopped just enough time to say hello to fellow BMG Guides Rob Jarvis and Owen Jones who were planning to climb the Hornli ridge the following day.We wished them luck before heading down to the Hotel Schwarzsee where with beer in hand we collapsed.

The next morning we continued on down to Zermatt where we checked into the only appropriate hotel for such an adventure namely the Monte Rosa. The very same hotel Whymper had used when he was planning the first ascent of the Matterhorn exactly 150 years beforehand.