Pristine touring above Grimentz.
Don't know how she 'got it' so quick, but she did!
The team posing with Chantelle, the most glamorous hut guardien in the Alps!
Mountain Tracks were proud to run the inaugural Bristol Grammar School Backcountry and Winter Skills course in February this year. We chose to host the trip in Zinal (Valais, Switzerland). The Val d’Anniviers (collective name of the area) offers vast scope and potential for adventurous skiers, and I personally rate this area as one of the very best places to ski in the Alps. The area is characterised by high alpine terrain, deep valleys and charming villages.
Based in the Chalet Alpina, we skied fresh tracks every single day and never did a run twice. There were 8 participants in all, 6 students (aged 17-18) and 2 teachers, Sarah Basset and Andrew Dimberline. The majority of the group were experienced piste skiers but had little or no experience making fresh tracks. The first few days were hard, with a lot of falls in the deep snow, however slowly but surely the group began to master the powder. One group member 'Jazz' became a stylish powder skier after just 4 days, and she carved beautiful 'S' tracks on every field.
All week we were blessed with both good snow and great weather, there was even a 15cm 'top up' mid week. One of the highlights was the remote trip down to the Moirey Dam. This is a famous and beautiful trip, and to be the first after new snow, it was very memorable.
A second highlight was our night in the Bec du Bosson refuge above Grimentz. The refuge is positioned at almost 3000m and has a panorama of over twenty 4000m peaks. Even though the temperatures at night fell to -30 we were given a very warm welcome by the guardian Chantelle, who made absolutely sure that everybody had a fantastic evening with fondue and card games. The next day we completed a long ski tour during which we never saw another person and again included plenty of powder skiing.
The young people found the week challenging and rewarding and a stark contrast to a conventional school ski trip.
Mountain Tracks specialise in guided mountain adventures and run frequent off-piste and touring weeks to the Zinal area.
2 comments:
Thanks for the blog with brilliant photo of Jaz in deep snow.
The kids have obviously had a fantastic holiday & we would like to thank you very much for giving them such a good time
Dear Andrew
Tim's certainly been full of it (well, fuller than he ever is about anything else, at least to his parents!) and suddenly wants a gap year doing more of the same - so no complaints there.
Many thanks for organising it all. I'm sure it's done him a deal of good, as well as being a really good holiday.
Regards
Max
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