Reflection
Posted on | January 15, 2012 | 3 Comments
After 30 days of non-stop skiing, I’m given the chance to reflect on all the wondrous adventures we’ve had together. Verbier has been blessed with the most memorable skiing in many,many years. Every run was in such great shape, alpine and treeline. I very nearly never left the valley. I wandered the ridges and combes, above and below tree line in search of good light and deep snow. Storm after storm hit us, driving us back into the light of the forest.
The most memorable was just last Tuesday, when Fi and I skinned up the Rosablanche and off the back. We skied down virgin couloirs filled with boot-top fluff, the 2.5 meters of accumulated snow, now compacted into the softest blanket of easy powder. We toured up another glacier, through another high pass, and skied down the most magnificent decent into the Bagnes valley in perfect conditions.
It has been blue-bird since that day. It’s cold, but the sun is intense. The wind has blasted the high peaks, revealing ice and rock. But the skiing is still stellar.
Meteo Blue is forecasting 5mm each day from Thursday through Saturday evening. We could get a fresh dusting to soften things up by the time I am back on my feet!
Skiing Verbier in Hurricane Andrea
Posted on | January 9, 2012 | No Comments
I’ve posted a few photos of the skiing during the Andrea storm on January 6th. (Please like this page of mine!) This is the second storm to hit us hard this season, leaving fallen trees everywhere on forest trails. I’ve added a small hand saw to the pack, along with the shovel, probe and everything else.
I awoke this morning to see a small orb rising. What is it? Thank Thor, I think it’s the sun, not seen in these parts for quite some time. Blue bird days ahead says Swiss Meteo. We are over 200% of normal snowfall this early January. The skiing has been very good even though the winds have been howling. It seems our valleys are well enough sheltered from the winds that the snow is still wonderfull to ski. Though visibility has been low, the tree skiing has been very good. I almost skied right over a car the other day!!!
Perfect mid-winter Freeride conditions in Verbier
Posted on | December 29, 2011 | No Comments
With the avalanche hazard down to level 2, freeride conditions in Verbier are outstanding. Every day has delivered new and exciting descents down hidden valleys and deserted towns. The snow is layered thick on chalet roofs. Rock, stumps, cliff bands and glaciers are all blanketed with a wonderfull thick coating of frosty snow. Launching off little jumps to help change ski direcetion is de rigueur right now. It’s mid winter in December!
Here are a few shots of the past week…
Winter starts with a bang!
Posted on | December 18, 2011 | 1 Comment
Well over a meter of snow has fallen in this western part of Switzerland. Winter in Verbier has started with the biggest snowfall we have seen in years. The ground is now well insulated from the cold air. This will encourage a healthy snowpack for the rest of the winter. A shallow snowpack does not insulate the relatively warm ground from the cold air at higher elevations. This high “temperature gradient” promotes a rapid growth of faceted crystals, seriously weakening that layer’s ability to support the new snow on top. This is one of the most common origins of avalanches.
The avalanche danger level for the past two days has been at 4. That is quite rare to see. It dropped to level 3 today. Because we have had so much snow at once, the avalanche level increases to a high level quickly. But because there is so much weight, that danger comes down quickly. If we don’t get much wind this next week, the level may drop quite quickly to level 2.
I created a short video showing the conditions we have this weekend.
Zinal Freeride
Posted on | December 9, 2011 | No Comments
Yesterday was the first clear day after 4 days of snowfall. What a feeling it was to be outside. The atmosphere was vibrant with freshness, giving energy to each turn in the first fresh powder of the season. Today, we went to Zinal, riding little half pipes and contouring the avalanche danger. It’s a moderate level 3, having settled a bit from Wednesday, when the last storm dropped half a meter + of new snow all over the Alps. What a nice scene it was in Zinal in the early season. There were very few people venturing off-piste, leaving us small side valleys to play alone in.
The forecast for next week is uncertain. It looked like more snow, but now the word Foehn is mentioned for mid-week… Fingers crossed for another few systems of unsettled weather.
The Haute Route – Chamonix to Zermatt
Posted on | November 29, 2011 | 1 Comment
We hiked the classic summer Haute Route in early September in almost perfect weather. What a treat it was to enjoy the company of other motivated people whilst traversing over frozen glaciers, roaring streams and mountain passes. Originally called the High Route by the English, the Haute Route is the ultimate glacier trek from Chamonix to Zermatt. Taking 7 days, we started with the lift from Le Tour and hiked to the Albert Premiere Hut. This short trek allowed us to slowly get in touch with our gear, and break the feet in pleasantly. After lunch at the hut, we moved onto the glacier to practice the crampon skills needed for the Haute Route.
Day 2 took us over the Tête Blanche and across the Trient Plateau to the Trient Hut. This area, from Trient to Arolla, is a special place for me living so close, in Verbier. Most of the next 3 day’s trek took place in the Val de Bagnes, my commune. A small snow storm broke out on the way up the Tête Blanche. I figured this was not bad, since it meant my clients would not clearly see the rappel off the corniche to the lower slopes below. It went well though. Obviously most people were a bit nervous since most they had never done anything like this before, but it appeared they were beginning to gain confidence in their guides! The Trient hut was quite comfy with the new addition. No water for a face wash though. Hopfully this will be corrected in the future for those dry, end of the season spells.
Day 3 we cruised down to the chair lift at Champex Lac. I spend a lot of time skiing here in winter and absolutely love riding down on this chair. The view towards Lake Geneva, the lake of Champex, the Petit Combin and Verbier, peals away as one lowers to Champex. A taxi took us to fresh supplies at the new Coop in Sembrancher, then to Mauvoisin for a picnic on the dam. We then hiked 4 hours along the beautiful path and over the Col de Tsofeiret to Chanrion. Marvelling at the roaring waterfalls crashing into the Mauvoisin lake, the views of the east face of the Tournelon Blanc, and sighting all the Bouquetin (Ibex), Chamois, and Marmots in this protected reserve, made this one of the more memorable days off the glaciers.
Day 4 is a long one, 8-9 hours: up the Ottema glacier and down to Arolla for a civilized rest at the classic Kurhaus Hotel. Whenever I get this far up the Val de Bagnes, I am always reminded of the ambiance of the Himalaya. It is so wild! The Crete Seche combe sees so little traffic, that you will not see any other footprints in the whole valley. Everything looks close, but when you start to walk, it’s like you are on a rolling carpet. You walk for an hour and it appears you are still in the same place. Trekking up this long glacier is a wonderful feeling though. The huge mountains all around ask you to detour and climb: the Bec d’Epicoune, Aiguille de la Singla, the Petit Mont Collon, the Pigne d’Arolla, and, and… we were so happy to drink that beer on the Kurhaus lawn!
Day 5 is 5-6 hours, straight up to the Bertol hut. I am always a bit concerned when clients ask me how many kilometers we will hike. This day is 4 kilometers, but why didn’t they ask about the vertical meters? This one is 1.3 kilometers…. up! If taken at a nice, easy pace though, this day is super rewarding for the group. Getting so high so quickly makes one feel like superman. Our progress is apparent with each step as the valley floor drops steadily away. The last few meters up the ladders open into one of the most adorable huts in the Alps. Cabane Bertol is perched upon it’s own eagle’s nest, with stunning views of the Matterhorn and the Dent Blanche.
Day 6 is another long one of 6-7 hours to the Schonbiel Hut. I love this day for its early start. Watching the sun rise and choosing my line over the convoluted glacier to economically get to the sun early, makes this day so special. There are heaps of crevasses to contour, then the slopes to the summit of the Tête Blanche. It really feels like one has arrived. It’s the end of the trek. The shoulder of the Matterhorn starts to peak out ahead and the Mattertal comes into full view. From the top, heading down, it’s like flying over in a small plane. Looking down at the glacier and rivers, the walls of the Matterhorn’s north face and the tiny chalets above Zermatt. The sence of relief and exuberance charges your whole being and drives you forward towards your next big challenge, the enormous boulder field separating you from the Schonbiel Hut at the bottom of the valley. A good fun test of balance and endurance before your next beer on the terrace!
Day 7 is a fine cruise down to town. Through cool old chalets and little hamlets, stopping at cute bistros and trying to speak Swiss German! It’s like Hobbit talk. Really quite difficult to believe it’s a real language it’s so cute! Zermatt here I come. Let’s go for a climb up the Breithorn, or another day to Saas Fee!
Climbing the Matterhorn via the Lion’s Ridge
Posted on | October 7, 2011 | 3 Comments
Fiona and I climbed the Matterhorn this early October, just hours before the first winter storm moved in. All lifts in Cervinia were closed, which meant an 1’800 meter climb, just to the Carrel Hut! It was the next day that had me thinking: 8 hours round trip to the summit from the hut, then 1’800 meters back to the car. Ouch!
We left the hut at a leisurely 7:30AM, just as the sun was rising. We immediately reached the first fixed ropes, The Awakening Ropes. I was fully awake after getting over the final vertical section. (Hmmm, not quite like the Hornli ridge…) Though it was quite cold, the weather was perfect as we climbed. The winds from the west were picking up as the impending storm approached. The route stays on the south face, clear of the ridge for the first few hundred meters, which meant we were out of the wind, but once up on the ridge I was happy to have my down jacket on under my gore-tex shell.
We then progressed across the south face, zigzagging towards, then away from the ridge, never too far from it. A metal cable appeared, which added security as we continued right and up on the south face. After some guess work, we reached the Tyndall rope that takes you to the ridge at approximately 4070m. We then climbed on the windy ridge to the top of Tyndall peak (4241m). The climbing was easy and fun, but challenging with the wind. Though there was ice in places, the whole route was doable without crampons or ice axes. From Tyndall peak, the hike is horizontal going NE, then some down climbing and the not to be missed, “enjambée”. The guide book says to step across or jump. Reading that, I’d gotten quite psyched to jump it, until I had a look at it. Forget that! Stepping across worked quite well thank you…
Once across the Col Félicité, the climbing is straight forward until the steep Jordan Ladder. Climbing this wooden rope ladder was a lot easier than it looked from below. After the Piravano fixed ropes, we were quickly on the Italian summit. And from there, a short down climb then up to the one meter higher Swiss summit.
Equipment: There’s lots of fixed pro, so bring 3-6 quickdraws and a few large locking carabiners. I used a 37 meter single rope. Crampons and axe may be necessary, plus all the other obvious mountain gear and clothing. The hut is unguarded, so bring food. There are a couple of good gas stoves and (dirty) pots and pans and dishes, but no water. We filled up with water at 3300 meters, below the small glacier, west of the path to the hut. One can find snow to melt near the hut, but may be difficult to mine (ice).
Piz Badile North Face Cassin Route
Posted on | August 31, 2011 | No Comments
The weather has been fabulous! It has been hot, hot, hot. With a week free to go climbing with my friend and fellow guide Mike Powers, we chose the Cassin route on the Piz Badile. Temperatures in the valley were 30+ degrees, so this looked to be a perfect window to climb a north face. The route was beautiful! Though the hut seemed ridiculously expensive compared with camping in the Val de Mello on the other side, we enjoyed our afternoon on the terrace of the Sasc Furä, gazing at the north face and surfing the internet!!! There looked to be around 5 other groups heading up, plus a few others bivying above the hut. Most groups would be climbing the North Ridge.
We left the hut at 4:15 and arrived at the foot of the face at 6AM. I had a few good topos of the climb. Marcel Dettling had given me a pdf of a drawing he made. It proved to be quite accurate. Though we were quite surprised at the scramble up to the ridge. This would have slowed me down had I been roped up with a client. After down climbing, rappelling, then traversing to the base of the route, the first pitch started with good climbing right away. We opted for the Rebuffat Dihedral. A bit of layback on small foot holds got us to 2 pitches of cruisey climbing. Then some delicate climbing below Cassin’s first bivy got us off route. Some nice person had fixed a rope to get climbers back on route. I can’t imagine this will remain in place much longer though. It was looking a bit frayed. So stay left like the topo says. Duh!
Climbing to the “Noon Ledge” was again quite easy. But here starts some steep climbing with the hardest moves at 6a. The rock is marvelous and varied. It makes for sundry climbing , always asking for different movements and preparation. There were many opportunities to place friends and rocks.
A 70 meter pitch got us to 2 pitches of chimneys, the first of which I found super awkward!!! Lucky Mike got this lead. 
We hit the ridge after a couple of fine pitches. 12:00 high noon. Then we moved together to reach the summit. 5 hours later found us back at our tent in the Val di Mello enjoying cold beer and pizza!
Frendo Spur
Posted on | July 9, 2011 | No Comments
Looking up from Chamonix to the Aiguille du Midi, Vadim asks, “Is there a route up there we can do together Hans?” Of course I immediately thought about the Frendo Spur, number 62 in the “100 best of” by Gaston Rébuffat. Anyone out there collecting points from this classic guide to the Mont Blanc Group? Without even looking at it beforehand, I realized we did 3 this week- 23, 42, and 62!
We took the second lift of the morning from Chamonix, arriving at the mid station of Plan de l’Aiguille at 7AM. From here, it’s about 45 minutes to the base of the route. The neve steepens, and one wants to traverse right to stay out of the line of fire from the seracs above, to the left of the Frendo spur. There was still good, hard snow on the two initial ramps, allowing us rapid progress up. At some point, as the second ramp steepens, one goes right, up some steep blocks and chimneys over something called the râteau de chévre. I never did find it, instead settling on the excellent Hawaiian Variant. A couple of moves on hands and knees near the end of this fine variant, and we were in the sun on the other side of the spur. From here, we climbed quickly together on super mellow terrain. It was fun to scramble rapidly up, gaining lots of height with each step. When the rock steepend, we scooted left again and found more good scrambling and a few nice moves of 3+ – 4. The key passage at the tiny col was a quite obvious dihedral blocked by a little overhang on its left. Three pitons allowed us to French Free this is fine style. Then we pitched out 4-6 rope lengths on super nice rock. A super hard aid move to get over a silly block, of which no guide book ever mentioned, got us on a line to get around even further left and within view of the final snow and ice pitches. Putting crampons on again, we climbed together up the steep knife ridge. As it steepened and the ice became more apparent under the snow, I slapped in a screw and started running out pitches again. The ice was superb! It felt like the finest icy desert to an already fine meal of rock. My Nomics were happy to sink their teeth into some alpine ice after months sleeping under Anya’s bed.
We stepped over the top, into another world. Climbers all over the place, heading up to the Midi lift, heading down to the Cosmique hut, people talking, carabiners clinking, full-on sun… and the lift to take us back down to Chamonix for beer and a Chinese meal! And all this just to save on the lift pass from the mid-station to the top!!!
The Grand Jorasses
Posted on | July 6, 2011 | 3 Comments
Descending into in the Larch forests filling the valley floor, I’m aware of the dwindling roar of the cascading waters from the Freney and Brouillard glaciers and conscious of the birds, the trickling water and soft sounds of my feet on the pine needles of the forest bed. Spending a few days high in these hills, and sleeping in these friendly Italian huts, provides one with such a fine feeling of alpine environments. It’s not until you return to the valley floor that you become fully conscience of the sights and sounds that have been with you.
Vadim is back with more intriguing stories of Moscow, Russia, and trips to South America and more. He is so interested in peoples of other cultures, how they prepare their food, the plants they use, and how they cope with different situations. It’s a luxury for me to spend time with him.
We climbed the Ottoz route on the Aiguille Croux from the Refugio Menzino, a 13 pitch, pure rock route, to get acclimatized for our 4000er, the Grand Jorasses. With a maximum move of 6a, this route has an alpine feel to it, yet with only and hour and a half approach from the hut. Armando, the guardian, is super nice, and has great tips for doing many great climbs from here, including some of the wild routes to the top of the Mont Blanc.
Conditions on the Jorasses were excellent. The huge area of seracs, which discourages many from heading this way, did not look too menacing. And I’d spotted a line from our previous outing that took us left of the main group of seracs. We climbed to the unguarded hut of Bocalatte in three hours the first day. What a pleasure it was to be completely alone in this part of the Alps. While climbers are scrambling all over themselves on the popular routes, we were all alone in this hut. A tiny MSR stove and a bit of pasta kept us satisfied, eating our dinner looking over the glacial ice tumbling down beneath our feet.
We got going the next day at a leisurely 5 AM, with dawn fully cracked. The snow on the glacier was nicely crampon-able, and the rock on the Rocher du Reposoir was warm and dry. A few moves of 3+ got us up and over towards flatter terrain and then onto a snowy ridge. A little serac blocked our traverse to the second rock rib descending from the Whymper, so I was happy to have my “piolet traction” to help me up this little vertical step. The rest of the route to the top was real straight forward. It was magnificent to look own into France, with all her glaciers winding away. Thanks for the trip Vadim!
