Another Mountain Professional in the Family: Diplôme National de Moniteur de Ski Alpin.

 

Florence in the Land Rover Defender.

Last week Florence successfully completed the final part of her Ski Instructors Qualification and now has another degree to add to her CV. Diplôme National de Moniteur de Ski Alpin, which is issued by the L’École Nationale des Sports de Montagne.  ENSM.  

 It takes many years of hard work even after you have put several years of skiing in since you were a small kid.  Like her elder sister Andrea, they started skiing when they could walk.  Flo skied the Vallee Blanche when she was seven years old non-stop in 40minutes.  She was the fastest 11 year old Super G Champion

So it helps considerably  if you are an exceptional skier just to get onto the programme , even before you are taught and assessed on how to teach.

The Eurosecurity is the final: the last test . Two full weeks  of off-piste and ski touring assessment. [On non glaciated terrain.]

The final day is another speed test - Yet this time its not on skis, but a search for two buried avalanche victims. [ Buried rucksacks not people.]

The  bags are buried one meter deep and 10 meters apart.  The aim is to find and recover the two bags in under eight minutes. Using an avalanche transceiver , shovel and probe. Florence's methodical  preperation and practice meant she found the bags in a few seconds over 4 minutes.

Flo returns home still in her assesment bib.

Now all that awaits is her badge which she will collect from the official ceremony in Paris in May.

The much coveted badge.

Poco Loco Staff Training.

 

Team Poco Loco.

Poco Loco is the iconic burger bar on the Rue du Dr Paccard in Chamonix. Squashed into an unfeasibly narrow gap in the main street it produces its famous burgers.  

The reason it is so successful is probably for many reasons, but one of the key factors is that people like working there.   Poco Loco is smart too, because it has a house where the staff  can stay for a modest rent.  

Thus Poco Loco, by providing dedicated accommodation has circumnaviagted the enternal problem of all alpine businesses based in ski resorts : That is the workers can't afford to live in the resorts, which in turn means the restaurents  bars etc can't find the staff.  

The staff are motivated young people, many, who are exploring the world and this being Chamonix are here to ski and to ski off-piste.  This is where I come into the picture because this year and last year I have run a days training for the staff roughly along the lines of "How to avoid getting avalanched while having a good time." 

The unintended consequence of days like these is that if they are not delivered carefully they can have the effect of " Giving people enough information to be dangerous..." 

A lot of avalanche courses concentrate very heavily on teaching avalanche rescue techniques with heavy  emphasis on extracting the casualty as quickly as possible.  While this is undeniably vitally important, my starting point puts the emphasis more on not getting avalanched in the first place.

So my group of highly motivated skiers and snowboarders, Olive Scarlett Merryn Quentin Gemma and Grace joined me at Le Tour. 

Everyone skied with a backpack, shovel and probe plus transceiver.  We started by looking at the signage provided by the resort.  The avalanche forecast for the day.  It was two, on a scale of five.  I explained that although it is possible to be caught in an avalanche at level two it is very unlikely. 

yellow flag risk level 2

 The issue with level three is that it is going to provide the best off-piste skiing but also at a hightened chance of being caught in an avalanche. 

On a level four day I suggested it was best to not ski off-piste.  Level 5 you did not need to worry about because the resort will  be closed as will a lot of roads.

We talked about the signage at the pistes - Skiing either side of the poles was fine, while ducking under a rope meant there was potentially significantly more challenges and if there is netting, then you should probably not try and climb through it or over it.

Probably best to not climb through..

My aim was to accept that the team were there to ski off-piste- but to make sure they knew what they were getting into. After all there are so many people rescued who claim "They didn't' know."

Next there was an explanation of what causes an avalanche.  It's not snow.  But snow plus wind. With their new found knowledge the group could then see for themselves natures signage.  There are many clues.

We skied some good north facing snow, while also talking about how to organise the group, so that if by chance some one was caught in an avalanche, then the whole group wasn't caught in the same slide.  I.e ski from point of safety to point of safety one at a time..

We looked at how to calculate slope angles, quickly, - [Generally if you can stay away from slopes of more than 30 degrees in marginal conditions then you will be safer.]

On our next run we started by throwing the skis over the shoulder and hiking up to the top of the Tete du Balme.   We dug some snow profiles to see how wind slab is formed, plus how to identify the weak layers

Looking at snow profiles

After which we skied down some challanging remote off-piste, putting what we had learned into practise.

The second key part of the day was to look at what happens if all of the above does not stop you from getting avalanched,or if you come across another group who have been avalanched. 

Above :If avalanched here is a template of what to do first.

So we did full avalanche transceiver searches, plus how to probe, how to shovel, what to do if you are the person caught,

Above :If you are caught you could try this?

Plus loads of other small details like which are the best Apps to have on your phone all which could make the difference between a sucssesful rescue and one that is not.  Hopefully everyone went away wanting to learn more because it is like a lot of new subjects: The more you learn the more you realise what you dont know!  

Continuing the theme of small is beautiful :Arolla.

Mt Collin seen through the fabled Arolla Pines

Charlie Di and Mike have been skiing around Argentire longer than I have. So at the end of their anual trip they were keen to go somewhere different.  So I suggested Arolla which is about as different as it possibly could be.  Situated at 2000meters at the end of a long valley it is a popular summer mountaineering destination.  In the spring it attracts lots of ski tourers and is best known because the Patrouilles des Glaciers ski mountaineering race passes througth the village on its way to its finish in Verbier. [Having started in Zermatt.] Yet for people in the know it also has brilliant lift accessed off-piste skiing. Well by lift accessed this actaully means two very long poma lifts, the second of which drags you to nearly 3000meters.  From where there are plenty of off piste ski descents.

I collected Di Charlie and Mike from Argentire and we drove to Evolne where we stayed at the Hotel Eden.  Charming and clean but had had no real upgrade in about a hundred years.

Dinner was in a restaurent down the main street which was good.  However the evening will be remembered for the charachters who par took in the Evolene festival.

This was some ancient festival which the villagers were determined to keep going.  It consisted of some blokes wearing scary wooden masks, dressed in dead sheep [ legs still attached] ringing cow bells , who took great pleasure in disrupting the traffic.  

My attempt to learn more about the tradition failed to glean anymore despite reading the glossy magazine which ws meant to give the history.

Anyway.  It snowed over night and we awoke to a cold clear day.  We drove upto Arolla.  The women selling the tickets was the retired guardian of the Vignettes Hut who I hadnt seen for 20 years.  We briefly reminist about a particular night when we were both blocked in the Hut for 3 days during a mega storm.-But thats another story.

Needless to say the combination of fresh snow, blue skies and effectively our own private ski resort meant we had exceptional skiing.

 

In fact Charlie [ who has done a lot of skiing in his life] said that it was one of the best dyas skiing he had ever had. 

Unfortunately the next day was possibly one of the worst... The weather changed, the foehn kicked in , it was windy and eventually the visibility disappeared. Life is timing.

One chair one T Bar one Drag + Perfect conditions : Liddes

Adam Symes with the Chamonix mountains .

 

When you know the conditions are good it makes sense to return.  This was my thried trip to the mega resort of Liddes in a week.  It is about an hours drive from Chamonix but worth it.

Adam Symes and I used the chair followed by the T Bar to help catapult us on our ski tour to the summit of .  There had been about 20cm of fresh snow overnight and I was thankful that someone else had ploughed the skinning  track.  

Our goal was the summit of the Bec Ronde, normally a straight forward ascent, but there was still a section where we need to take our skis of to negociate some underlying loose rock.  We summitted at linch time which also coincided withe the wind dropping and so we were able to eat our sandwiches and take in the marvellous 360degree panorama.

Aiguille de Argentiere.

our track with Lake Geneva in the back ground

After our picnic we skied back more or the less the way we had come through some good but frequently challanging snow.  Afterwhich we spent the rest of the afternoon skiing off piste from the lift system.

Before driving home we visited Liddes unique Fondue cheese vending machine.  Highly recommended for the best Fondue cheese in Switzerland [therefore probably in the world?]

A unique purchasing opportunity ...

Conditions are not what they always seem...

 You can awake to lashing rain drumming on the roof and think should I actually be going skiing? Certainly not in a wet soggy Chamonix. Yet investing a bit of time looking at the weather forecast in detail and the web cams and noting the word "Foehn" in the forecast always points to heading through the tunnel to Courmayeur.

This is exactly what Peter Whelan and I did.  We left a grey rainy miserable Chamonix and after 11680 meters of tunnel we arrived to 20 cm of light fluffy snow.

Needless to say the skiing was some of the best so far this season, plus the sun came out and the scene was just about perfect.

Late afternoon and still acres of untracked snow.

Skiing down towards the Peutry Ridge and Mt Blanc

Nearly into 9th decade of skiing.

 

Aiguille Belvedere in the background determined ski tourer in the foreground.

Peter Folkman is one of the few people who I  have "done" the alps ski and climb classics;  Namely: Mt Blanc,twice, The Matterhorn, The Eiger, then on skis the Vallee Blanche and the Haute Route.  Plus in our case countless other adventures including Britains finest climb : The Old Man of Hoy.

So I was delighted when he announced he was coming out to ski with me.  We would the same template as always: Be flexible and go where the conditions were good on the day and hopefully ski in some areas that Peter hadn't yet visited.  [A challange!]

On our first day we skied at Le Tour and then put the skins on for a journey into Switzerland.  The snow was quite blown and the descents were challanging.  We refuelled with a late lunch at the Appage de Balme which is alawys good.

Peter high above the ski station of Liddes CH

On our second day we headed to the mini resort of Liddes - On the road to the Grand St Bernard.  By mini resort it has one chair one T -Bar and one drag plus some excellent pistes and wonderful ski touring.

It is the sort of resort where you phone to ask what time they open and they reply "What time can you be here.?"

The first time I skied here was quite a few years ago the Chris Chataway in the late 90's - The man who paced Roger Bannister when he broke the 4 minute mile.

Our third day we headed to Les Contamines.  It was cold and clear and the pistes were in immaculate condition.

Looking down on the runway at Megeve

On our final day together we visited Courmayeur.  Again it was cold and the weather was beautiful.  The pistes were in great condition and empty.  We had an excellent lunch at La Chaumiere too.

Stunning skiing in Courmayeur with an impressive backdrop

Klosters : As good as ever.

Henny Bill Jane

 I was back in Klosters again.  When people ask me- which is the best place to ski off piste from the lift system   I have no hesitation in saying Klosters.  Its terrain, quality of snow is significantly better than any where else I have skied.

Mind you this trip got off to a bad start: No sooner had we left the top of the Gotscshna Cable car - Possibly five minutes into the skiing when out of no where an elderly women [ out of control] skied into Bill.  Whilst he remained upright , She did not. Instead she took an almighty crash,  knocking her self out smashing her face up and breaking her arm.  We called the Piste Patrol who in turn called in a helicopter and whisked her away.

So the first hour had not been straight forward.  Nevertheless for us, at least ,the day got better.  We enjoyed incredible skiing especially off the piste and into the Casanapass area and then down through the heavenly Conterser Schwendi meadows, where the skiing was through deep untracked snow - even more amazing because it hadn't snowed for a week.

It was then back to the iconic Wynegg Hotel which was our base.

The next day the weather was over cast , so inorder to avoid the flat light we headed for the tree skiing of the Chalbersaas woods.  Again if there is better powder tree skiing, then I dont know what it looks like. 

Bill enjoying the fabled Chalbersass tree skiing.

We emergerd from the trees and joined the piste back to Klosters, where now the sky had cleared . We again took the Gotschana Cable Car and then skied off-piste all the way down to Wolfgang for lunch where we met by several hunderd heavily armed soliders getting ready for the Davos Economic Forum.

Lunch was eye wateringly expensive, but to add insult to injury swiss restaurants also now charge you for tap water.  Eight Swiss francs.  Which is roughly eight pounds for a fucking litre of tap water. 

On our third day we skied another of Klosters fabled off piste runs the Gmeinboda.  This is done from the  top of the old T bar just north of the Paresenhutte.   It starts with a ten miunute walk with the skis carried on the rucksack.

Henny Bill Jane on the short climb

The top section was a bit wind blown, yet as we skied down we found lots of wonderful untracked snow which continued all the way through the trees and meadows.  

Summit ridge of the Gmeinboda

Ibex on the ridge 

After lunch we rode the lifts back to the top of the resort and then finsihed by another long run down to Wolfgang where we were planning to take the train back to Klosters.  However a combination of not reading the time table correctly [Bill] and the rare occurrance of a Swiss train being cancelled, mean t we had to hole up in the Bar for several beers which almost resulted in us missing the train again...

Ski trips dont always go according to plan..And why there is a firework ban in the Chamonix Valley.

Mt Blanc seen from the top of Le Bochard gondola

 A trip long in the planing for the Mills family who had travelled all the way from Creve Coeur- St Louis USA, did not go the way anyone would have wanted.  After an hour of warming up on the pistes of Le Tour we ventured off piste where Mary strained her knee ligaments and her leg would not support her weight let alone ski.

There was no real option but for me to call in the PGHM Rescue helicopter -  After the intial call to the rescue base in Chamonix, pretty much everything  is now transmitted via What's App.  The Police send you a message  which you click on and   they can get your exact GPS co ordinates.

They said that they would be with us in 20 minutes. However ... fifteen minutes later I got a message saying in fact the Helicopter had been diverted to a serious incident and would therefore be an hour at least.

Although the weather was good we were in fact on the north facing slopes and starting to cool down rapidly.  So I made a second call to the Pistuers at Le Tour and sure enough they turned up with a rescuse sledge.  They then strapped Mary into it and slid here down to a big flat area where they used a private helicopter to take her to Chamonix where she was met by my daughter Sophie and taken back to the hotel.

On our second day Paul his two daughters Emma and Sarah and his son Charlie skied with me at Grands Montets.  We had a big day skiing every meter of the area.

Our third  day [New Years ]was probably our standout day.  An early start took us to Combloux, where as ever, there were still acres of fresh untracked snow where all our off piste descents were in solitude.

Balloons pass in front of Mt Blanc

Descent to La Giettaz

On New Years day I greeted Paul in the hotel foyer.  "Happy New Year" I said .  

"I wish it was!" He replied.  Emma had had her brand new I phone stolen in the New Year crowds in the Rue du Moulin.  They had spent most of the new year trying to locate it on the find my app.  The app frustratingly shows where it is but you just can't get to the fucker who stole it.

So our first port of call was the Chamonix Gendarmerie .  This was a  real eye opener for me, because New Years day is  a busy place for Chamonix law enforcement.  For starters they are dealing with the fights ,stabbings, drunks of the previous night - but also the chaos the fire works cause.  Fire works are completely banned in the Chamonix Valley, but the law is ignored on a industrial scale. 

The reason for the ban is that it is impossible for the resuce helicopter to fly while dodging rockets.  Plus the fire works cause a huge pollution issue so again the helicopter can't fly.  Plus it drives a lot of the domestic dog population crazy and they all run off.  While we were waiting at the Police station several very destraught people came into the Station reportung their dogs missing.  

Frankly it was up-setting to see so many people so miserable.  It certainly opened my eyes.

After filling in the stolen phone report we went to ski up at Brevent/ La Flegere, where we were thank full to be able to use the ski school priority lane to avoid the crowds which allowed us to do a lot of skiing

On our final day we headed through to Courmayeur .  No longer did we have the big anticyclone of the last 10 days, because the weather had changed and the wind had started blowing really hard.  A lot of the lifts closed in front of us, funelling the holidays skiers into the lower lifts which remained open.  Fourtunaetly I had had the foresight to book the excellent restuarent La Chaumiere which saved the day.

Mt Blanc seen from top of Val Veny Cable Car

Mobilité Douce - It's now possible to ski in Megève from Chamonix without a car

The 2024 opening of the Valléen Télécabine that runs from le Fayet to St Gervais now means that it is possible to ski in Les Portes du Mont-Blanc (Megève - St Gervais) from Chamonix without having to drive. 

The new Valléen télécabine

Andrea tested the route out today. 

Andrea left the house at 7.30am for the 7.37am train from Les Tines. Her friend Holly hopped on in Servoz and they both arrived in the Saint-Gervais/Le Fayet train station at 8.40am. The half-hour drive and habitual carpark faff was replaced by a one-hour train journey with beautiful views.  

Beautiful views from the Mont Blanc Express

No carpark faff - boots are already on

Empty trains

The train ride is free with a valid Mont-Blanc Unlimited ski pass - simply show it to the train conductor and they will give you a ticket.

Andrea's return ticket

Andrea and Holly turned right out of the station and walked onto the Valléen lift. It was then five minutes to St Gervais and a further five minutes on another brand new lift into the Bettex (St Gervais). 

View of Le Fayet from the new lift

Andrea and Holly were now in the Portes du Mont-Blanc resort where they zoomed around for five hours making it to Côte 2000 and back (completing 7,000m of vertical descent and 43km of skiing). No problem getting a full day's skiing in.

They traveled back over and down to Le Fayet, arriving 10 mins early for the 2.28pm train (timing was crucial here as the trains run every hour).

Journey back down - Andrea was happy as the timing was spot on.

The train journey back to Les Tines took an hour and nine minutes (unfortunately prolonged by a 15 minute stop in Chamonix), completely justified by the opportunity to explore another resort outside of the Chamonix valley. 

Conclusion: Andrea said she would definitely do it again - this is a great option if the conditions in Chamonix aren't satisfactory. The train journey is a great replacement for the palava of a car journey.

Never seen better skiing conditions at Christmas.

Christmas from a skiing point of view has been a picture of doom and gloom over the last few years- especially in the lower resorts like Megeve.

But not this year!

Andrea, my ski instructor daughter, and I went on a scouting trip to Megeve ahead of our six-day engagement with our 14 guests from New York.  This was going to be our first daddy-daughter collaboration and we wanted it to go well.

We were initially excited to use the new lift from Le Fayet straight into the St Gervais lift system. A brilliant idea which has failed because you can't actually park the car at the bottom, which left us incredulous to how it all might work.

We skied around the resort making some key restaurant bookings. A lot of the resort was still not open due to lack of snow, yet Andrea and I were content that we would probably have enough snow to keep our guests entertained.

Andrea scouting our Megève restaurants

Plus the weather was beautiful.  

Mont Blanc seen from the top of Mt d'Arbois

The day we were due to meet the weather was not good.  It was raining and sleeting and there was zero view.  Andrea and I were nevertheless impressed by the group's enthusiasm to ski.  Fourtune favours the brave because as we travelled up the cable car the sleet turned to light fluffy snow.

The skiing through the trees was wonderful.

Then it got colder and continued to snow.  Heavily!  All night.  The journey from Chamonix to Megeve took twice as long as normal and was chaotic.  

Again we had wonderful skiing with at least 50 cm of fresh snow.  

Snowy Megeve

After two days of heavy snow the sun came out.  You could not have written the script any better.  The weather and conditions were completly perfect.  If it could be better I dont know what it would look like.

Looking towards Sallanches

Mt Blanc seen from Combloux ski area

The group earned their four days of perfect skiing by being prepared to ski in the bad weather on the first couple of days.  All the ski instructors, restaurateurs, etc agreed that they had not seen skiing conditions at Christmas in Megeve for as long as they could remember.

Infact it was so good I suggested to the team they should consider giving up skiing because it was unlikely to be ever this good ever again! Andrea and I also agreed our first week working together couldn't have been any better. 

Happy Team