Chamonix Powder Skiing!!!

The first snows have fallen across the Alps this week. Sunday saw snow falling in most resorts across the northern Alps all day including Val D’Isere, the Trois Vallees, Chamonix and Morzine and there were reported accumulations of more than 40cm of fresh snow above 2000m.

This heralds one of the earliest starts to the season for a long time. Sadly much of it may not last much beyond the end of the week as warm southerly temperatures are due to arrive soon and stay for a few days. However at altitude the north and east facing slopes should stay covered now the days are getting shorter and colder.

I have been back in the UK for a week and was disappointed to miss the first snow fall in Chamonix town on Sunday. Even after more than 10 years in the mountains I still get that same excited feeling when I see the first proper snow fall after the long hot summer!

Having returned to Chamonix only late last night, I didn't want to waste any time and so myself and a couple of friends did an (almost) dawn raid before work up the Aiguille du Midi for a cheeky ski. Roger was late joining us so Emma and I headed off down the arête. It was windy and cold descending the steep knife-edged ridge so it was nice to get to the bottom and get our skis on. By this time Roger had caught us up and once we were all ready we headed off towards the Envers du Plan on the Vallee Blanche.

There had been at least half a meter of fresh snow but the top sections had been badly windblown. We all had some entertaining skiing for the first few turns including a quality head-plant from me! Thankfully we found a very good route past the first section of crevasses and headed on down some much better snow. The powder improved and with some whoops and shouts we all skied another 300m or so down to a flattish area close to the Gros Rognon. Here we decided we had skied the best of it and got ready to ski tour back up.

This was paying the piper and the price for the morning ski was a lung-busting skin back to the bottom of the arête. It is never easy going uphill at over 3000m altitude! Taking the line of least resistance we skinned back towards the classic Vallee Blanche route and joined some other skiers on their way back up from down past the Rognon.

The trip was also an opportunity to test the latest batch of kit from our sponsor, Berghaus. We've just received a new delivery of gloves and so I took with me their women’s 3in1 ski glove and can report they are wonderfully warm, cosy and comfy to wear!

The wind was still blowing hard in our faces as we climbed back up the ridge, past the 2 massive crevasses that are currently occupying the centre of the ridge...nice! Best not to look and just keep walking! After taking our skis off our rucksacks we were back in the cable car and down in Chamonix ready for lunch and an afternoon's work in the office!

Fingers crossed the snow will stick around and continue to fall through November and December and give us a great early season.

If you have not already booked your next exciting mountain adventure with us then check out our website www.mountaintracks.co.uk/winter for our selection of worldwide off piste and ski touring holidays and courses. Our winter brochure is also available in handy flip-book format - click here.

Here are some pictures of our mornings adventures!

Traverse of Pointes Lachenal

Klemen enjoys a day out on the Traverse of the Pointes Lachenal at the foot of Mt Blanc du Tacul above Chamonix with Hilde, Cathrine and Elisabeth.

The traverse is a good introduction to mixed terrain alpine climbing and an excellent training & acclimatization day for further 4000m climbs.







Want to try this? Contact Susie susie@mountaintracks.co.uk

Summit successes all round so far this summer

Klemen traversing the summit of the Matterhorn

The Alps have been blessed with amazing weather since the beginning of July and we have had almost unbroken sunshine for a few weeks. The temperatures have hit a scorching 35 degrees in places and it has been nice to escape up the mountain to cooler temperatures.

Our guides have been out leading trips across the Alps and everyone has enjoyed excellent climbing with ground conditions. Olly guided a group around the Swiss Valais and climbed some of the classic 4000m peaks in the area. Klemen Gricar, who many of you will know from the winter has been busy guiding in Chamonix and Zermatt for us. We have had a group successfully summit the Matterhorn recently, well done to Mark and Andrew for their achievements.

Mark, Andrew and Ross (guide) on the summit of the Matterhorn

Klemen has also guided Hayden and Clifford to summit four 4000m peaks above Zermatt, these were Roccia Nera, East Twin, West Twin and the Central summit of the Breithorn. They also completed ascents of Castor and Pollux to add to their tally; congratulations to them both.

Hayden and Clifford

Matthew Betts and his friends have just finished their trip to Chamonix and the Italian and Swiss Alps. After some warm up days in Chamonix they headed to Zermatt to meet Klemen for the Spaghetti Tour, which is an amazing circuit around the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa area. A report in this morning from Klemen says they climbed eleven 4000m peaks in 6 days, pretty good going.

Matthew and Friends atop the Breithorn

Olly has just set of on an ascent of the Eiger and Matt is away in Saas Grund with Karen and John for a week of climbing. We have a Haute Route Trek starting on Saturday and places still available on another from the 11th – 20th September as well as a Bernese Oberland Trek from the 4th – 11th September if you still want to get away into the mountains this summer.

View from the summit of the Dent du Geant down the Mer du Glace

We have also had some busy weeks in and around Chamonix, the Tour de France once again passed close by; with a stage finish in Morzine/Avoriaz. Lots of people headed across to watch and ride the climb before the riders passed though. Being a Lance Armstrong fan it was sad to see his chances of a podium victory disappear that day in a series of crashes during the day; but it will be interesting to see how Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck fight it out for the win.

We have also had the World Climbing Championships take place in Chamonix last weekend, watching the men’s and women’s finals of the difficulty and speed competitions on Tuesday night was amazing. The huge crowds erupted when French girl Charlotte Durif won the women’s difficulty. Ramon Julian Puigblanque from Spain won the men’s difficulty and afterword’s the crowds enjoyed the firework display to mark the Bastille Day celebrations.

Last Wednesday saw Glen Plake, now a Chamonix resident, and all time ski hero give a talk at the Cinema prior to a showing of the famous, cult movie Blizzard of AHhhhhhh’s. Mr. Plake was then one of the judges for the Nissan Outdoor Games held in Chamonix all of last week. 5 teams put together a short movie showcasing climbing, kayaking, paragliding, speedflying, basejumping and mountain biking. Some outrageous stunts were pulled including basejumping from paragliders, mountain biking off the ski jump in Chamonix and soloing some crazy climbing routs. Team Argon won the competition with their film, you can view all the films at the Outdoor Games Website.

Spring is here!

Over the past few weeks we’ve had lots of guests out skiing and touring across the Alps taking advantage of the mainly good weather and excellent snow conditions. Our Haute Route ski tours have been as popular as ever with 8 separate tours and a total of more than 40 people making the journey between Chamonix and Zermatt this winter. Despite some blistered feet and changes to the route almost everyone made it into Zermatt to complete one of the great high mountain ski tours.

Elsewhere our Backcountry Explorer trip in Zinal at Easter enjoyed excellent snow, quiet slopes and the wonderful hospitality of Penny and Eric at the Auberge Edelweiss. Hopefully we are not letting the secret out too much by singing the praises of this wonderful untouched paradise of powder!

Sue and Andy Mac and their staff continue to do a wonderful job at the Auberge in Ste. Foy and our recent Off Piste Performance and Backcountry Explorer trips also had a great time out skiing with our guides and instructors.

Bryan Hogg has been busy leading our Performance courses in Chamonix and having joined them all on a couple of days, I can confirm everyone’s skiing and confidence came on leaps and bounds under Bryan’s careful eye!

Remy Lecluse has been leading our Steep Ski Clinics in March and April and both groups enjoyed skiing some legendary steep lines and couloirs in Chamonix and the Mont Blanc Massif. Ticked of the list during the 2 weeks were the ENSA couloirs at Brevent, the Marbre under the Dent du Geant, the east face of the Tacul, the couloirs below Point Alphonse Favre on the Glacier du Mort, the NE slope of the Aiguille du Belvedere and the Col de la Bouche on the L’M. I think everyone had an amazing time and learnt a lot of new skills from Remy.


Shoulder of the Aiguille du Tacul


Remy gives a masterclass in steep skiing


Marbre Couloirs

We are now gearing up for the last few ski touring trips of the winter - a last Haute Route ski tour lead by Olly Allen, plus 2 more trips in the beautiful Bernese Oberland and last but not least our Ski Mont Blanc in the second week of May. Here’s hoping the weather and snow conditions stay good for them to summit. With the good recent weather in Chamonix there has already been quite a bit of activity on Mont Blanc with people make ascents over the last 2 weeks or so. The ski tracks are clearly visible down from the Vallot refuge past the Grand Mulet hut back to the Plan D’Aiguille.

On another note Matt Dickinson who many of you know and have skied or climbed with on Mountain Tracks trips is currently on an expedition to Mount Everest. He arrived safely at base camp a week or so ago and will be making the first routes up through the icefall this week as they start to acclimatise and put the high camps in on the mountain. We wish him the best of luck in his attempt, you can keep up to date on the news from Everest using by clicking HERE, which has regular posts from all the British teams on the mountain.

We also extend our wishes to Nick Bullock, Matt Helliker and Pete Benson who are attempting to make the first ascent of the Southeast ridge of Annapurna III at 7555m. The guys set off last week and Matt and Nick made it to Kathmandu before the volcanic ash cloud prevented Pete from joining them, but hopefully he will make it out soon so they can continue their walk into base camp. You can follow the trip on their blog HERE to keep up with the banter from base camp!

Do keep in touch and if we can help with your trip plans for the summer or indeed winter 2011 just let us know.

Serious Powder

Everybody hopes for optimal snow conditions on their ski trip. The best snow conditions result from regular top-ups of snow and cold temperatures. Often the best powder weeks are bad weather weeks and the selection of where to ski is of prime importance.

The 'Miles Group: Chamonix, La Grave week' was just that. Snow every night, mixed weather and tons of powder. Fresh track skiing was enjoyed on all six days.

The skiing standard was extremely high and fast skiing on steep slopes was the prefered style.

Day1: Posettes Couloir, Le Tour
Day2: Grand Envers, Aiguille du Midi
Day3: Val Arpetta, Courmayeur
Day4: Monetier, Serre Chavalier
Day5: Monetier, Serre Chavalier
Day6: La Grave

Here are 6 photos which are representative of the trip.


Le Tour Backcountry. Where are all the people? Coditions were pretty much perfect.


























Courmayeur, 60 cm of fresh in the Arpetta. Julian leads the charge.





Peter smashes the snow in Banana Couloir, La Grave

Ski Touring Skills Weekend 4th - 7th February

On Friday I joined the first ski day of our Ski Touring Skills Weekend for a ski day in Megeve. We had a group of 12 with Jonny Baird and Klemen Gricar, IFMGA Mountain Guides looking after everyone. With a forecast of heavy snow we headed out of the Hotel Regina in St. Gervais to the ski lift at La Jaillet in Megeve, as we got to the top of the lifts the heavens opened with amazing heavy snow.

Working our way through the lift system and pistes we enjoyed lovely powder on the piste and headed towards the start of our ski tour for the day. Our aim was the Petit Croisse Baulet which stands at 2009m on the side of the Aravis chain of mountains, that splits the Megeve/St. Gervais valley from La Clusaz and Grand Bornand. This is a great little ski tour, especially for our gang of first times tourers, its a gentle walk to start with along a well established path before it slightly steepens and climbs through the trees to the summit; its also great in snowy weather as you have the trees for aided visibility and a good ski down.

The guides ran a session on "how to" put your skins on and adjust to bindings into walk mode and some basic skills on skinning, before we set off. Everyone caught on really quickly and was enjoying the uphill, as the climbed steepened the first uphill kick turns were done with only 1 or 2 fallers the basics of these turns were practised on the rest of the ascent.

At the top everyone had enjoyed the effort of going up, despite not getting a view of the mountains, we took skins off, had a bite to eat and headed off on the ski down. In the time we had walked up somewhere around 40cm of new snow had fallen so there was some good powder to ski between the trees. It got heavy low down and there were a lot of comedy falls and crashes in the snow, lost skis and plenty of giggles! We made it out on to the piste at the Giettaz ski area just in time to catch the last lifts back up to Megeve and home for a welcome cup of tea and hot shower.

No photos from this day due to the snow but Klemen took these great pictures on Sunday when the sun came out and the group headed out for a ski tour from Les Contamines.


Getting ready for the off.


Jonny reads the weather and avalanche forecast for the day


Jonny shows how to adjust your bindings for the uphill


Heading off up the hill


Wonderful views as the sun finally comes out


A quick rest for food and water on the way up


Richard enjoying the skiing back down


The team enjoy a beer and vin chaud at the end of the day

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Over the last couple of weeks we have seen our first guests of the season out enjoying the early snow. Matt has been very busy teaching avalanche training courses in Chamonix, we have had a foundation and advance level course over the last 2 weekends and a second foundation course running this weekend. With a large amount of fresh snow falling as I type (its very distracting seeing the snow falling past my office window in Chamonix!) it will be ideal conditions for them to learn all the skills for avalanche avoidance. Maybe those of you with snow in the UK today can get out and do a little practice of your own!

Our Early Season Skills week in Zinal has been running this week with everyone enjoying good snow conditions despite the freezing cold but sunny weather. Claire Summer has been leading the trip and they have been perfecting their on and off piste technique as well as a few ski touring skills.

Olly and Jon are out today in the fresh snow with our first ski touring skills weekend in St. Gervais, our group of 10 avid ski tourers are out to learn all that is needed in hopes of taking on more challenging hut-to-hut ski tours later this season. These are great weekends for anyone wanting to tackle a multi day ski tour or if you just need to brush up on these skills and we have more planned for January and February.

With only a handful of shopping days left to Christmas and Ladbrokes giving a 7:2 chance of seeing snow in London on Christmas day its time to book your next great adventure with Mountain Tracks. We have availability on our Advanced Off Piste trips in Chamonix, Zinal and Engelberg as well as some spaces on our Piste Performance courses in January. Places on Remy Lecluse's Steep Ski Camps are nearly sold out with availability in March only and with lots of hut-to-hut ski trips and Backcountry Explorers to choose from; it will take your mind off all that Christmas shopping!

Seasons Greetings and good wishes for the New Year from all at Mountain Tracks.

Steep Skiing Clinics with Rémy Lécluse

NEW for 2010: Two 'steep skiing' Clinics in Chamonix with UIAGM Mountain guide and steep skiing specialist, Rémy Lécluse.
The course is 5 days with 2 days of technical skills/preparation followed by 3 days of steep skiing - the itineraries and routes will be set by Rémy depending on the snow and weather conditions.

This course is a fantastic opportunity for a small group of expert level skiers to spend a week with one of the best steep skiing experts in the Alps.
In Rémy's words..."The goal of the course is to teach you safe technical skills & the necessary psychological attitude to enjoy your passion safely."

Dates: 14-18 March and 11-15 April.
Price - £875 per person course only
Both courses are for a maximum of 3 skiers.

Visit www.mountaintracks.co.uk/winter/offpiste_adventure/steep_clinic or email email Susie for further details.

The snow is arriving, time to go and find my skis!

Snow is falling across a lot of the Alps this week, I returned from the UK yesterday to strong wind and rain at Geneva airport but as I drove back into Chamonix you could see the snowline down to around 1200m.

There were some snow flurries last night and this morning and the view from my office window is one of white snowy mountains (I have a great view straight up to the top of the Grands Montets and the Pas de Chevre) and snow sitting on the trees, combined with the late autumn colours, its really beautiful!

We have a string of warm and cold frontal systems crossing over the Alps this week and the Chamonix meteo http://www.chamonix.com/page.php?page=11&r=meteo_chamonix&ling=en reads of an accumulation of up to 50cm at 2500m over the next 24hrs. The snowline should drop to 1000m, just below the height of Chamonix town from Thursday and the weekend is forecast for further snow falls.

Will it be time to get the skis out soon? Lets hope so, maybe not this weekend but almost certainly the next. Some of the resorts with glacier skiing like Cervinia, Zermatt, Tignes and Saas Fee will be in great condition and it means we will start the season on a high with a good base for the 3rd year in a row.

Here are a couple of photos:

Further snow updates as it fall.

Susie

More Summit Success

Congratulations to Damon Marshall and Scott Quincey who made a successful ascent of Mont Blanc yesterday in wonderful conditions.

A perfect day, blue skies, blazing sunshine and light winds gave them ideal conditions for the climb. Klemen lead them safely to the summit and back down to the Tete Rousse hut.

Summer Highlights

Since our last update we have had lots of further summit successes! Nick and Adam have lead 2 guests up the SE ridge of the Eiger; Jeremy Paterson and his group of 5 have summitted Mont Blanc last week despite some poor weather at the start of their trip - fortunately the summit morning dawned bright and blue!

On Thursday last week Olly and Adam also reached the summit of Mont Blanc with a further 3 guests! All in all we have had a great success rate so far this summer, everyone has enjoyed some great climbing and been enthusiastic and motivated and coupled with some fine weather have been able to achieve their summit goals.

In the meantime I have been out and about walking, mountain biking and paragliding around Chamonix and the neighbouring areas this summer. In July I survived a week’s mountain biking at the Mega Avalanche race in Alp D’Huez. This is a crazy mass-start race from the highest point in the resort, the 3300m Pic Blanc, right down to the valley floor in Allemont at 700m. The race involves riding your bike (or trying to – is more apt!) from the glacier over snow, ice and rock 32km down to the valley floor negotiating some crazy steep drops and scary rooty switchbacks on the way.

Negotiating the snow...

Nick and I had an amazing flight on our paragliders from the top of the Grands Montets in Chamonix last week, taking off on the glacier on the Pas de Chevre side, and flying close to the Dru overlooking the Mer du Glace. It’s a truly amazing flight climbing in the thermals so close to the famous South West Piller of the Dru.

The view from 3400m from my paraglider...

I have also been out enjoying some long walks around Chamonix, a couple of notable ones are the fantastic walk up to the Gare de Glaciers, which is the old lift station of the original route of the cable car to the summit of the Aiguille du Midi. These old buildings still have the cable cars hanging in them and all the old workings of the lifts. The top station right under the Midi itself is a testament to the builders and their determination to get to the top, getting all the materials up there by hand cannot have been an easy task.

Gare de Glaciers in the shadow of the Aiguille du Midi...

The Bel Oiseau at 2650m above the Emosson reservoir in Switzerland is a great day walk, taking the path that contours along from the dam wall above the righthand side of the reservoir. You turn off and take an easy path towards the slopes of the Bel Oiseau, around 500m from the summit the path pretty much disappears and it becomes an easy “off piste” scramble across the rocks and boulders towards the summit ridge. The views are amazing down to the reservoir and back across to the Aiguille Vert and Mont Blanc. A must walk for anyone wanting a truly wild remote experience.

Emosson Reservoir...

Success on Mont Blanc

On Wednesday Olly guided Jonathan Clare and Richard Jones to the summit of Mont Blanc, congratulations to them both. Despite poor weather early on the Wednesday morning they sat out the morning in the Gouter hut and headed out into the clearing afternoon sun around 3pm.

Summiting at 7pm having battled through strong winds to reach the summit ridge, a quick stop to enjoy the view and they were back down in the hut by 10pm for a well earnt late dinner and wait until they could get a bed to sleep the rest of the night away.

The Thursday morning dawned bright and clear and they headed back down to Chamonix to celebrate their success. Photo’s to follow in due course.

The Final trip of the winter season finished with some excellent skiing on Mt Blanc and the Grand Paradiso! Despite poor weather the respective teams managed to summit on the Paradiso and the Dome de Gouter. Everyone had a great time and some lovely spring snow on descents. If you would like to see the trip pictures go to http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/ollyguide/SkiMtBlancMay2009

My skis are now packed away for the winter and rock boots are now ready for action.

Olly