Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Combloux Giettaz




To day we had a perfect days skiing. Fiona, Antony and Reuben Berg started by skiing knee deep powder through the trees and the skied off the back of the Christomet lift towards Giettaz. A ten minute walk with the skis over the shoulder set us up with a dream descent into the village of Geittaz. We then took the chair lift out of the village before skiing down for a late lunch at the Auberge de Christomet which with out a shadow of a doubt is the best Mountain Restaurant I have consistently eaten in.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Weather gone mad

From no snow in the garden and the grass turning green we now have a meter of snow.
Most of Chamonix was either closed or partially open. Reuben Fiona and Antony Berg and I skied in St Gervais and Combloux where there is tons of untracked snow.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Introduction to ski touring






Peter Collins and his two daughters Alice and Lucy and Alison Redesky and her daughter Daisey and her son Oscar came ski touring. On our first day went through avalanche training using bleepers and search procedures. We also learned how to use the skins and the rest of the associated equipment.
The next day we went on the "col du crochue" ski tour behind La Flegere.
Our plan for the final two days was to spend the night in a mountain hut: We drove through to Le Chable where we picked up a helicopter [unbeknown to the girls] and got dropped on the Rosablanche behind Verbier. We then skied the North Face before getting some of the best untracked snow of the season. In the afternoon we climbed up to the "Pantalon Blanc Bivouac Hut" which is situated at the top of a mountain at 3180 meters. We were the first group to visit it this year.
The next day we skied out of the hut before climbing over a couple of cols and skiing down to Haute Nendaz. We then traveled through the Verbier lift system back to the car.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Whitepod




We drove from Chamonix through deep snow and over the col du Montets and round to the small ski resort of Les Marcottes. The weather cleared and we skied powder through the trees with hardly a sole around.
we then drove round to the Whitepods where we spent the night. The next day the plan was to ski tour but instead it rained all day and was pretty miserable.
The following day the weather improved and we skied in Villars and had a very pleasant lunch at the golf club.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

la Giettaz

Today there was not much visibility so we skied through the trees at La Giettaz. It snowed all day and we made fresh tracks until we got bored and went home. Hardly saw a sole all day. Brilliant skiing.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Big Change in the weather


Maighread Simmons and I have been skiing in around Chamonix for the last few days. It has been threatening to snow but not much else. Today we went to Courmayeur where it was dumping it down. Huge amounts of fresh snow and not much visibility but because we were skiing through the trees we were just fine.