Happy New Year Couloirs

Happy New Year! What a wonderful start to the 2010-2011 winter season. The egg shell coating we received earlier, has provided us with a solid base, allowing us to ski all the classic lines normaly reserved for late January. The avalanche risk has recieded to level 2.

We skied 2 steep couloirs on this December 31, 2010, sending the old year to memory bliss. It was such a fine feeling, playing with gravity on firm carvable , steep snow, then through variable powder on the lower slopes. Skiing the K2 Dark Sides, with 128mm under foot, added an incredible dimension to all the terrain we cover this day. I felt like a kid the whole day, and a content old man when I went to bed.

Happy 2011 to you all.

This entry was posted in Freeride on by .

About Hans Solmssen

I am a professional mountain guide living in Verbier, Switzerland. I grew up on the Big Island of Hawaii after my father moved to Hawaii to teach at Hawaii Preparatory Academy. He created a horse program at this high school, located in the middle of the largest, privately owned cattle ranch in the US. Horses were a major part of my life, even playing polo for a few years. I moved to northern Vermont to go to school, and discovered skiing. Little did I know, this would become my life's passion: guiding friends and clients over the mountains around the world on skis and foot. I moved to Verbier, Switzerland in 1982, and entered the Swiss guide's program in '88. I received my UIAGM "pin" 3 years later in 1991. I have two kids, Anya and Kevin.

1 thought on “Happy New Year Couloirs

  1. Mike

    Hans, the slideshow link asks for a user name/password..

    BTW Vermont is melting out. Mud season already. We are desperate here.

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