Chamonix Part I

I've just returned from an eventful 9-day trip to Chamonix during my Easter holidays.  Although the weather wasn't brilliant, and the weather forecasts were even worse I managed to shoehorn plenty of skiing into the trip and tick several lines that have been on my to-do list for a few years.

Friday
I flew out to Chamonix on Good Friday, arriving in the valley mid-afternoon.  I was staying with my friend and once-housemate George who has moved out to Chamonix from Sheffield.  Living in a nice apartment near Les Houches he maintains that his internet business has funded his alpine lifestyle although I remain to be convinced.  Anyway, with rubbish weather forecast for saturday we head into town for a quiet pint before dinner.

Saturday
I wake up around lunchtime, hungover, but thankfully not as hungover as George.  The weather, fortunately, is as crap as the forecast suggested so a McDonalds breakfast and an afternoon session at the indoor bouldering wall are the order of the day.


Sunday - Vallee Blanche
Feeling like I should probably actually do something with my holiday George and I head up to Brevent to do some resort skiing.  The weather wasn't great, but it was forecast to brighten up in the afternoon and, following 3 days of rain at valley level we knew there would be a lot of fresh high up if it did clear.  Having done a few laps of the Cornu chair the sky started to brighten.  We packed up and headed over to the Midi and jumped straight onto a deserted bin up to the top station.  As we emerged onto the snow arete we were greeted with blue skies, a huge amount of fresh snow and only a handful of tracks heading down the Vallee Blanche variants.

Me on the snow arete, Grands Jorasses behind

We decided to ski the some version of the Envers Vallee Blanche (I've never quite figured out the differences between the Envers-Plan and the Petit Envers) which was fantastic.  Waist deep snow which was genuinely difficult to move in unless you were partly in the tracks.  Thankful that we hadn't had to put the first tracks in we dropped down towards the Requin hut with much whooping and, for George, a bit of near drowning.  Very heavy but deep snow near the bottom made it tough but the Salle a Manger and bottom section was well tracked leaving an easy ski down past Montenvers.  We hiked up to the hut and skiied a slushy but fun James Bond track back to chamonix which was complete save for a 200m hike past the train crossing before Planards.

Too much snow!

George enjoying deeeeep snow on the Envers Vallee Blanche

Monday - Cosmiques Couloir
With good weather forecast, the original plan had been for George and I to meet up with Will (see his blog here) and go climbing - Pinocchio on the East face of Tacul was one idea - but after seeing the amount of snow up high there was a unanimous decision to go skiing instead.  I had seen tracks heading into the Glacier Rond on the Midi NW face on Sunday and the Rond's neighbour, the Cosmiques Couloir, was one which I'd not skiied.  George, Will and another of George's friends, Sion, were all cautiously interested in skiing the Cosmiques which has relatively steep skiing (about 45 degrees at the top) in an exposed position.  It is however very easy to access from the Midi via a short abseil and one of the most popular 'steep' lines in the valley.  Monday was clearly going to be a bluebird day but the chaos that is early morning at the Midi Station didn't materialise and the four of us walked onto the first bin.  Both the Cosmiques and the Glacier Rond are accessed in about 10 minutes by skiing rightwards under the South Tower of the Midi, and then a short bootpack or sidestep up to the col between the Cosmiques Hut and the Abri Simond.

Looking down the first abseil into the Cosmiques

George abseiling into the Cosmiques Couloir

Another team of skiers just ahead of us had started to abseil in on the (skiers) right of the couloir, so we rigged our abseil on the left hand anchor.  The weather was perfect but cold, and two 60m abseils quickly allowed us to reach a good platform under a rock and below the steep rocky section.  As an aside, it is safest to abseil at least 90m into the couloir (which is easiest with 60m ropes) rather than trying to take shortcuts and sidestep through the rock bands.  Although this is perfectly possible, one skier fell the length of the couloir trying to do this the day after us - and he certainly wasn't the first, nor will he be the last.

The first 50m were scoured and quite steep (~45 degrees) but after the first few turns the snow improved and everyone started to enjoy themselves.  There is a small band of rocks at about two-thirds height which is most easily bypassed skiers left and the following section was in superb powder.  Throwing turns in this 'hero snow'  was brilliant and everyones confidence quickly improved.  We took the exit gully on the right and, although the snow got a bit choppy towards the bottom, we all arrived on the Bossons Glacier with big smiles and burning thighs.

Will at the top of the couloir

George just below the upper rockband

After skiing the glacier back onto the front face of the Plan d'Aiguille we headed down the Para face to finish.  The first section was lovely rolling powder fields which more than made up for the chopped and frozen snow in the gully and trees below.  We skiied, or rather sideslipped, the nasty track through the trees to finally emerge near the entrance to the tunnel.  More than happy with our 2500m of vertical descent we sat down for a rest there whilst George got a lift back to Cham with a couple of other skiers to collect the car.  A celebratory beer in Elevation awaited.

Not wanting to waste the rest of the afternoon we went home for lunch, had a hot-tub in George's garden and then went rock climbing - spending the evening at an interesting limestone sport crag near Sallanches working out some more beta for George's most recent project.  Needless to say I slept well that night.

Will getting to grips with his first turns on the Cosmiques

Looking back up to the Chamonix Aiguilles from the Mont Blanc Tunnel