Lunch at Ciecco's in Courmeyeur!

Each of the last 3 winters I've managed to make it through the tunnel to Courmeyeur (the bus there and skiing is free with the Chamonix season ski pass) for a days skiing er, 4 hour lunch at Ciecco, a fantastic restaurant just off the pistes, right on the mountain. The food is fabulous (fairly pricey, but well worth it), the ambience and setting magnificent, but the main ingredient is Anna, the owner, who takes the orders, but also pretty much gives the orders on who should have what and will take every chance to encourage you to blow your budget ("So Anna, what wine would you recommend for about 20€?", [Anna]"Well, you have left yourself no choice, with your main course choice, this one, it's €35.", "Oh, ok, er, I'll take it."). She's really a fantastic hostess and great character who adds a lot to the experience here. And at the end, while you are sorting out the bill, she'll leave you with bottles of homemade grappa and limoncella to polish off at your leisure. Wonderful stuff. This time I was here with friends from London, Ray and Alex, flatmate Todd, and his friend Deb from Canada.

Marbree Couloir (from La Palud, Courmeyeur)

Take two! This time we had reservations in advance (but ironically there were no queues anyway). It was an astonishingly cold on the walk to the top of the Marbree, in the lee of the Aiguille Marbree, given how hot it was yesterday, but this was an early start, and we were at about 3300m, in the shade... Luckily it was only 10 mins or so before then we came out into the sun and the top of the Marbree. It was decided to climb up a bit higher than the normal entrance, to get to some sunny, steep looking slopes. And it was quite steep, approaching 50 degrees for the first 50m or so where we were going to start the descent. Unfortunately, we didn't really wait long enough for the snow to soften up properly and it was a mix of hard and soft snow, which made things interesting (read: pretty scary). I started down with my ice-axe in my hand, just in case. It's tricky riding with a classic piolet, you have to take care not to stab yourself on each turn! The snow was tricky enough that I had to really gird myself for each jump turn, knowing that a mistake could lead to a long slide, and even though I had the axe I wasn't totally confident in using it while riding (or while falling!). After about 50m it softened to 45 degrees but the snow still made it tricky. The lower we got the softer the snow, of course, but it took a good 500m vertical to really get proper spring snow - party because the clouds came in about halfway down, which stopped the snow heating up properly. Getting near the bottom we started to encounter patches of grass and rock, had to do a couple of walks but after that we skied right down through some nice summer-only villages to Planpincieux where we got the bus back to the bottom of the Palud lift. We all had lunch and then Benoit and I skied back down the Noire side of the Valley Blanche (which had lovely snow and not half as skied as the French side) while Bob drove back. A great day - challenging and a bit scary, but super satisfying. More pics here...

Courmeyeur, North-facing couloir between Mont Nix & Mont Favre (from Col D'arp)

We actually came over to try for the Marbree couloir, but when we got to the Palud lift, the queues were enormous. We made a reservation only then but could only get a 10.30am lift, and being a very hot day starting the descent at about noon felt like it would be way too late. So we gave up on that idea and went over to Courmeyeur proper. Benoit had an idea about a couloir he'd like to do, so we took the top lift to Col d'Arp, skied south down the Vallon di Youla a km or so, hung a right behind Mont Nix and then skinned up that side valley to the west. In the head of the valley we climbed up north to get to a lovely north-facing slope with a nice couloir (perhaps 35-40 degrees) that had not been ridden since the last snow-fall. The snow was cold, not crusty at all, and deep. A lovely short descent, followed by a long run-out and a bit of a walk for me (boo, snowboarder) along the flat Val Veni to the Zerotta cafe and chair. At that point, I called it quits as my knee was a bit sore (lingering tendonitus) and took the chance for some cake and coffee! A good save. We'll try for Marbree again tomorrow with some new reservations we made for 8.45am. More pics here...

Couloir de la Floria - Col de Berard - Le Buet Village (from Flegere)

Bob and I used this route as steep couloir practice, the Couloir de la Floria being a solid 45 degrees. It had snowed heavily on Monday, just 5 days before, and we knew not too many people had skied it since, meaning the couloir should be in good condition. And it was. Soft snow still in the steep parts, giving confidence to the jump-turns and a fast run out at the bottom. A hot day, the skin back up to the col de berard was a sweaty affair, but once there, again the quality of snow down the other side to the village of Buet was surprisingly good (i.e. great!). And Bob found it even better, being much lighter than he should have been, having taken off from the last col without his backpack! (which I had to carry down to him...). The payback was a big Edelweiss beer and coke at the Le Buet pub, where they had a jazzband playing, in the sun - magic. More pics here.

Col du Passon - Col du Midi des Grandes - Couloir Pissoir - Trient (from Grands Montets)

A long tour this one, with Benoit who I met at the CAF, plus a couple of his friends, to a very nice couloir with great ambience - running down beside the Glacier du Trient, and then down to Trient village (Switzerland). We started with the normal Col du Passon (about 700m / 1.5 hrs), then traversed across the whole glacier du tour and up to the Col du Midi des Grandes (another 500+m, 1.75 hrs). From there, down the Couloir du Pissoir. The snow was very hard work going up, quite crusty on top, and my very wide split board skis were about a hand-span wider than the thinner skin track those pesky skiers had left - they need to walk a bit more like John Wayne. So I had a lot of extra drag widening the skin track. At the very top, just as we started descending, on now really nice snow, no rocks around anywhere, I just stopped dead in my tracks and fell over - no clue to the obviously very sharp rock below the surface that just ripped by base out and exposed the wood core! Ouch. I didn't know until we got to the bottom, and therefore still enjoyed the great descent. Until I fell over the 3m frozen waterfall that is... More pics here.

Grande Autannes - Croix de Bron - Trient (from Le Tour)

I joined the CAF (club alpin Francais), which is a super inclusive, very friendly outfit, who arrange tours for members at the weekends. Go along on Friday night, listen to what's planned, put your name down for Saturday or Sunday, or both. The trips are led by experienced locals and they tend to go on interesting variations from the standard fare, both in the valley and sometimes outside it too. Average age perhaps 50? But all very, very fit, so they are fast on the climbs. Going down, they might not be so fast.. perhaps "considered" is a good word to describe the pace. But it's a great way to learn new routes and improve your french, being that they are so friendly, and will even revert to english if needed!
This route took us up the Grande Autannes from Le Tour, then across to a saddle on the Glacier Grande called the "Croix de Bron", from there we skied down the nicely steep Glacier Grande and down along the lower valley to the village of Trient, where a van was waiting to whisk us home. The pic shows the view of the glacier before our descent. More pics here...

Petit Envers - Col Superior du Plan (from Aiguille du Midi)

Back to the Petite Envers (4th time now?), but this time we stopped about half way and climbed up to the west up to the Col Superior du Plan, then skied back down the same way, back onto the Petit Envers again. It was a hot day, a bit cloudy at times (sometimes whiting out, but after short waits it would clear again). The climb up intensely hot and a bit tricky on the super springy snow (slush) and we had to step over a couple of 1 foot wide crevasses as well (though not too deep, perhaps only 8ft, from what I could see). Near the top we had to nip quickly past the hanging glacier / serac above us, then across the bergschrund (a type of crevasse at the point of steep slope where the lower weight of ice pulls it away from the ice anchored to the higher slope). That steep slope we had trouble walking up was great skiing down... More pics here.