skykilo

Trip: Les Hautes-Alpes - Cherchez Les Pentes Raides, Vol. II Date: 4/8/2008 Trip Report: Volume I: Argentière I was sad to leave Argentière after six wonderful days. I was hopelessly in love with La Verte, but she just wasn't ready. So I hopped a train for Grenoble, where I met my friend Christophe. The next day, we did a tour in the Belledonne massif. We skied Rocher de l'Homme: the Man's Rock. Christophe skis from Col de la Mine de Fer. I took a rest day to wander Grenoble, which is a wonderful city surrounded by beautiful mountains. Then we drove the 80 km up the road to La Grave. Christophe isn't a big fan of "Le Ski Extrême," so we planned a nice tour: something new for him, which would also let me see a lot of what the Ecrins offer. Like so many other great tours in the Alps, we began by taking the deux tronçons of the telepherique plus two rope tows, rising more than 7k vertical feet to the Col de la Lauze. On the rope tow up the Glacier de la Girose. From there, we had a nice descent on south-facing slopes. Christophe enjoys his backyard. Then we slapped skins on the skis and skinned to a col where Christophe waited while Pinegar and I continued to Tête Sud du Replat. We skinned by some beautiful steep shots en route and my eggs were aching, but somehow I survived. Pinegar approaches the summit. From the col, we skied 1000 m of perfect corn to the Refuge du Chatelleret. J'adore la moquette. Christophe on corn After a nice break in the sun, during which Christophe and I finally convinced Pinegar not to attempt a third-degree sunburn, it was time to climb to Refuge du Promontoire, which is situated above 3000 m on the backside of La Meije. Dave and I had a great time trying to embarrass Christophe, being drunk, loud Americans without the good taste to take our repas at the hut, while guzzling a liter of schnapps followed by some vins chauds. Despite being ugly Americans, we had the great fortune to meet a lovely Parisienne and her brother. Hi C'! He seemed enthusiastic about "Le Ski Extrême" - maybe some day we'll ski some steeps together, who knows. Sidenote: I think I accidentally deleted all my photos from this part of the trip. Fawk. The next morning, the weather was shitty. As we skinned toward the Col du Pavé in a jour blanc, I cursed the traverse. The weather finally broke at the col and my attitude improved accordingly. I would post an awesome picture of it, but I think the picture no longer exists. So much for the end of our tour. We skied a sizable descent from Col du Pavé and finished at Villar d'Arêne. Checking the forecast upon our return to La Grave, the next day looked like the last day of good weather. Christophe and Pinegar both had to return to work, so the solo slay sesh was on. I had some retarded plans for a big day without using the telepheriques, but I came to my senses at the last minute (or did I?). Here is an example of how stupid I am. I didn't have a watch or phone or any other chronometer with me, so I was using my camera. I woke, wondering whether it was time to begin my big day sans telepheriques, and took a picture. But I forgot about the nine hour time difference, so I thought it was too late for that plan, and adjusted my plans to use the lifts. I brewed a huge pot of coffee. When I was almost finished with it, I realized that it was actually one in the morning. Big crisis, what to do? I switched to wine and Génépi. Génépi is so good. Midnight madness Eventually a beautiful morning dawned. There was a little fresh snow and clear skies. But I can't drop one of the opening lines from Exupery's Vol de Nuit - Ciel pur, vent nul - because the wind was ripping. I was at the station for the first bin, but they announced that only the first piece of the telepherique would be open because of the high winds. Now this place is really starting to remind me of a bigger, gnarlier Alpental.... I had to walk across the street for a grand cafe crème to regain my morale. Then I bought a ticket to get my boost. *Seulement une montée, SVP *Tu sais que le deuxième tronçon est fermé? Yeah, at least that made the ticket cheaper. Wind ripping on La Meije Saw three other guys looking to skin. A nice getleman asked me *Tu vas où? *Je vais monter au Col de la Girose, j'espère, ou Col de la Lauze - cependant le vent. Time to skin. Skinning The wind was just ripping at the second tram station. I took an hour-long break, hoping that the wind would break. There was a lonely dog and an employee. He approached me to ask how I'd gotten there. After he left, out of hope, I inquired *As-tu la météo? *Quoi? *Il n'y a pas de chance que le vent... *S'arrête? *Oui *Non Damn it. After much observation and hand-warming, I observed that the wind appeared to be milder above the tram station. When the other three tourers finally arrived, I shared my observation. *Je pense que le vent est plus fort ici. *Bien sur, c'est le col! Cool, that's it, I'm going. So I skinned to the Col de la Girose without any problems. Then I got to ski one of the lines that had made me drool on my tour with Christophe and Pinegar. Here it is. You can see several skiers in there. They stood there forever; I think they had nasty, firm conditions. It was sweet packed pow for me. The view from above. Yeah, bro. Now that was fun. What's more, le vent s'arrête! And would you like a second helping of good stuff? Southwest face of Le Râteau. The view of La Grave from the summit of Râteau. Looking down from 3809 m to 1400 m, Mont Blanc in the distance. More yummy ski terrain, looking down from atop Râteau Here's a view of Barre des Ecrins, the southernmost 4000+ m peak in the Alps. That face on the Barre is actually skiable, but not while I was there. Like so many other great lines, not in condition yet. Warm spring storms should do the trick. I must return. Got home to Washington, where the steeps are always in condition but the weather and access suck, and skied one of my favorites the next day. Check it. France: Je t'aime! Here's a parting view of La Meije, taken from the kitchen window chez Christophe. Thanks for the hookup, mon ami. Gear Notes: still sucks Approach Notes: deux tronçons, si tu as la chance.

Alpental?

Trip: Les Hautes-Alpes - Cherchez Les Pentes Raides, Vol. I Date: 4/1/2008 Trip Report: Having made three research trips to Finland over the years, this time I had to seize the opportunity to ski the Alps. Sixteen days, sometimes spending sixteen hours in the lab, north of 60 degrees lattitude with a stressed-out must-succeed attitude, I was ready for release. They were having a late winter in Finland throughout my sojourn. In a fitting ending, the morning I left Jyväskylä, I walked to the train station through a blustery snow storm in which I had to don all my ski gear, including goggles. Here I am waiting at the train station. I often felt more uncomfortable and disoriented on my trip through Europe carrying all my crap than I do atop a steep, exposed slope with my skis. Due to a lack of infinite travel funds and procrastinated planning, my itinerary to Geneva was Jyväskylä -> Tampere -> Frankfurt -> Mainz -> Geneva via Train -> bus -> plane -> bus -> train^3 I was very happy to see Ryan at train city in Geneva after a frustrating hour with the telephones. His rippin' Scottish ski buddy Jim drove directly to the station for the Aguille du Midi. Finally, time to get high. I was ecstatic to ski powder after three weeks, so much so that I immediately headered twice from the Col du Plan. Ryan and I formulated a low-cash, no-class Washington scrapper strategy to ski the Aiguille d'Argentière the next day, starting from Argentière at 4 am. I must admit that we forfeited our style points by stopping au Refuge d'Argentière for some eau gazeuse and cookies. Mont Blanc and Chamonix for scale and scope L'Aiguille d'Argentière from the top of Les Grands Montets Ryan skins up the Argentière Glacier so early in the morning. Dave skins up Glacier du Milieu with La Verte(!) in the background. We were going to ski the Barbey Couloir, but the weather went to shit, so we skied the classic route that we'd just climbed. Ryan skis Milieu. Drew skis Milieu. That was a can-crushing (dénivelé de 2650 m!) day that made us all feel great. We took a good night's sleep, bought food and liquor, took the tram up Grands Montets, then headed to the Argentière hut to facilitate an early start. Next up: Les Courtes, one of the most classic ski lines in the universe. Les Courtes - 1300 m of orgasmic glory. Thanks to Damian for the photo. See his website at http://steepdeepjapan.com Ryan looks like a kid with candy. Wonder why? Nearin the top of Les Courtes. We were early in the season and the glacier ice high on the face wasn't covered. We took a slightly steeper finish with a thin coating of powder over rocks. Drew in the place to be Let's get this party started? I proclaimed the edge-worthiness of the icy snow below the veneer of powder, so I was the first to demonstrate. Sidestepped the first bit off the top because of lurking rocks. skykilo, sultan of sidesteps We all survived the landmine-infested top bit. Drew starts the party. March 30 is quite early for Les Courtes, so we suffered on the top bit. But then we got to ski more than 1 000 m of the most incredible steep powder that hardly sluffed. Dave demonstrates. Get it, Dave. Now for an interlude to admire La Verte. We scored big. Satisfied, Ryan and I were discussing mellow plans for the last day; then we saw a good forecast. So we reoriented ourselves for something sicker: Couloir Ouest on Aiguille du Chardonnet. Too bad, not only was the delicate traverse to get to the top 250 m too scary sans corde (we didn't take any rope or avy gear on this one), but the summit shot wasn't in skiing condition either. Sky, still stoked. Powder makes a good consolation prize. We enjoyed great turns on our descent to the Argentière Glacier. Ryan revels. Through the squeeze to the hanging glacier Glutton Next: Grenoble and La Grave. Gear Notes: Hate it. Approach Notes: Télépheriques rock.

Yeah, wasn't that a huge wet slide I cut below the false summit? Good thing I knew it was coming....

Trip: Mt Stuart - Ice Cliff Glacier Date: 4/12/2008 Trip Report: After a bus to and a high-speed train from Grenoble, a lovely evening in Paris, a two-hour flight to Amsterdam, a five-hour wait in Amsterdam created by flight delay, and an eleven-hour flight to Seattle, Ryan was nice enough to nab me from SEATAC Friday evening circa seven. Four hours after leaving me at home, most of which I spent drinking Génépi liquor and raving to my roommates about France and Les Hautes-Alpes, he reappeared with his new kick-ass ski buddy Monika and they were ready to go to Leavenworth. There was a bit of discussion about what route to ski. Colchuck Peak's NBC was mentioned, but I thought that a hot day and early sun would guarantee a death slurpee there. We needed to get high and find shelter. I knew just the line for the job: Ice Cliff Glacier: so protected, so high, so steep, so lovely. What better way to cure jet lag than a long approach after a short nap? Ryan skis toward Mt Stuart after a pleasant ~12 km approach from Icicle Creek Road. Mt Stuart: the Ice Cliff Glacier and its couloir are hiding in the shadows to the left of the summit and false summit We had some fun playing on the blue ice of the glacier... Monika enjoys some ice - we didn't have to climb this, but it was good to avoid exposure below a menacing serac. This chunk of ice required a small amount of air time on the descent. When Casey and I skied the couloir two years ago, it took a good edge, but it was none too soft. This time we found chunky pow that made for some wickedly fun steep skiing. Monika and Ryan get at the cornice, while I offer them a rope between kicking snow onto them and taking pictures. Monika and Ryan approach the true summit. Monika is a ripper; she's so good that she levitates over vertical rocks on her skis. La trace raconte l'histoire... No, actually, she was on rappel, as Ryan is here. He was just holding her rope. He didn't hold my rope. Jerk. The snow was incredible. Ryan finds his groove. Wonderful steep turns down the whole couloir! In case you can't tell, Monika is shredding the steeps. Ryan enjoys his turn on the same. Ice cliff bulge from above... ...and from below. This route is definitely a steep skiing classic. The Stuart Range is holding a ton of snow this spring. Everybody go bag some lines! Triple Culos? I have lots of material from the Alps; so much that it's overwhelming. Coming soon... after I do some work. Gear Notes: Carried and used 1 metric shit-tonne of gear; it was heavy. Approach Notes: The Cascades kicked my ass after sipping expressos in the Alps. Sky and Ryan au Refuge d'Argentière two weeks ago. We're here; we're there; we ski steeps everywhere.

Very true that glacier routes can evolve from easy to impossible on their own. That's part of the fun of the game. I'd also be interested to hear what else your boss skied.

Great TR, Ryan. La Grave is very special, too.

You mean with a 7 k' climb? That's not easy (comparatively). Let's quit being apologists. We f'n slay hard in Washington. Nevermind the ski, pas de télépherique, no helis, go get it son. I don't doubt that your boss could've done it, but who is he and what else did he do? Your post demands more information. Merci beaucoup, ton ami à La Grave, Skykilo

I've made a voodoo doll dressed like a precision low-energy nuclear physics experiment in your honor. First, I exported it to the other side of the world north of the 62nd parallel and now I'm killing it. Nice pics.

Here's a thread on TGR that includes some young powshredders: http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=115065 Hope you all enjoy.

I'm very jealous. Nothing ever makes me feel better about missing any epic Cascades skiing, Jason. Great work d00dz.

If you want it, the skiing is good year-round. Of course there are other distractions available....

Thanks for the additional info, everyone. It's always good to ruminate on the relevant particulars.

DEATH TO THE SCROLLBAR!

Some of my shots:

Jason's version of the same:

So it sounds like a hard windslab. Can we please get some specifics like elevation/aspect? If I were smarter maybe I could interpret matosan's very specific-sounding number.... Glad you're all right.

Are you f'ing serious? Just go skiing! (You won't be finding any brush unless you really look for it. The snowpack has consolidated but it's still deep.)

Nice pics and great tour. Hitting the summit of Kaleetan is definitely proper style; I love that shot off the top.

Good luck, man.

Quality fun.

Who wants to go skiing?

This TR makes me want to go see the Price Glacier firsthand again. It's such an awesome display of steep glacier ice - like a raging four-thousand-foot frozen waterfall.

Sweet pics and touching prose. Is this Broken Top? Looks like a killer face.

I remember lots of snow over rock. Maybe not too much protection unless you spend significant time scratching through the snow. It seemed reasonable to climb unroped to me. Steep and exposed does come to mind...