19th- Aiguille d'Argentiere
Went to Ski Mountaineer the Aiguille d' Argentiere today. Unfortunately, got 1/3rd of the way up and turned back due to poor weather. Should really do this when we have a view!
20th- Training Day! Rich has come out, a friend from winter ML. He has done plenty of mountaineering but not Ski Mountaineering. We planned on doing the Haute Route on Tuesday so thought we would prepare and go over some fundamentals.
Training started with the Crochues Berarde Traverse on a warm clear day, after demonstrating a kick turn and skinning up a short section there was an avalanche at the top of the slope. Apparantly one of the higher groups had started booting their way up the left hand slope at the top and it triggered the slide. With several groups shaken up by this but nobody hurt, we decided to continue our training in the shade of the Grand Montets!
The Classic Haute Route
A bit ambitious as a debut Ski Tour for Rich here, but we knew we could do it and possibly bail out at several places on the route. Here is a summary of the route we took!
21st- Chamonix (Grand Montets) to Trient Hut
On the Argentiere Glaciere, heading towards the Col du Chardonnet
Beautiful light on the Grand Montets Ski Descent
Up and over the Col du Chardonnet, time to strap on the Ski's and head for the Fenetre du Saleina, the second col of the day. Great views up the North Face of the Aig. d' Argentiere from here.
22nd- Trient Hut to Bourg St. Pierre
A chilled out day..... Bourg St.Pierre is really sleepy.
Skiing down the Glacier from the Trient Hut
The amazing Trient Plateau
Yet another stunning day skinning up to the Valsorey hut. About 4.5 hours work, feeling fit today.
24th- Valsorey Hut to Chanrion Hut
A room with a view, the Valsorey Hut WC...unfortunately I had to do the 4am run!
A future project. Mont Velan here can be done on Ski and looks perfect! One day up to the Velan Hut and another day to the summit and back down. This was in our itinerary but we decided to take it more easy... no rush.
From the Valsorey Hut we made an early start up to the Plateau du Coulouir. 300m or so of hiking with Ski's on our back to the plateau. We took the most direct route for max enjoyment! Unfortuantely over the coulour and the enxt col brought bad weather and a tricky descent to the Chanrion Hut.
This photo is certainly worth enlarging! The long low gradient glacier up to the Vignettes hut.. we chose this route instead of going over te Pigne d' Arolla due to seriously strong winds in the morning and bad weather due. Turned out to be a good choice. A beautiful morning
The Matterhorn starts to reveal itself
4 Hours of skinning and we arrive at the Vignettes Hut. Recently restored, good food and nice beds await!
Unfortunately we got an updated weather forecast upon our arrival. Lots of snow due and strong winds. After a lot of decision making (and nearly descending to Arolla - an easy escape route) we decided to stay the night and await a forecast update. We had several chocies for the next day, we wanted to finish the route and end up in Zermatt but it was looking more liekly that Arolla would be the destination.
Breakfast was due at 5.30am. At 5am, we were awoken with 'Petit Dejeuner a 7 heure'.... bugger. The hut Guardian had made the decision for us. The weather was too bad to go out early and use all the time possible to get to Zermatt. We were going to be going down to Arolla!
With a constant wind speed of 120km/h we had a leasurly breakfast and then headed out into the wind and snow.... a few hours later we made it down to safety and a ride home!
I think we will be back, skin up from Arolla to the hut, stay the night and finish the route soon! The ski to Zermatt looks fantastic!
Here is a short video of the morning weather check!
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