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First Midi trip of the season
We have been watching and waiting to ski this for a while now, and
Christmas day dawned with blue ski cool temperatures and light winds.
A late start of 11 o'clock saw us joining a cable car load of Japanese
tourists for our ride up the Aiguille - we became somewhat of an
attraction ourselves with all our gear. At the summit we had a pleasant
surprise; the ice tunnel now leads straight out, no more squeezing
down a narrow corridor.
Windblown ridge
With no ski tracks to follow we opted to follow the Col du Plan
route also known as the Grand Envers. This route takes you down
the ridgeline of the Aiguilles and stays close to the rocks making
negotiating crevasses easier, normally. The route took us a kilometre
or so along a windblown ridge than down a huge powder bowl. This
then leads into a second steeper bowl towards the bottom of the
bowl there is a Rimae, also known as a Bergshrund. This is a crevasse
separating the mountain from the glacier proper.
An ice cave |
Negotiating
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Roger & the seracs |
Negotiating
the crevasses
The first two bowls had lovely powder, but lower this degraded to
wind packed snow and further still to nasty wind crust. As the glacier
eased in angle the crevasses became more numerous. Owing to the
last summer being probably the hottest on record and this being
our first time this season, we had a interesting time finding our
way down. When nearing the Refuge du Requin there is a steeper section
which last year was just a steep slope. This year a real jumble
of ice and rocks and a bit tricky to get through.
Roger's first turns |
Tom open skiing |
Tom in the top bowl |
First run of
the season
Down on the flat lands of the Mer de Glace it was bits of windblown
snow rocks and blue ice. So long as you avoided the rocks you could
rattle a long at a great rate of knots to Montenvers to catch the
train home. The lift operator at the Ice caves informed us that
we were the first skiers of the season and that the Valley Blanche
and its alternatives hadn't been skied since May.
Words and Pictures
from Tom
Greenall - Natives Resort Reporter
in Chamonix
W ith Redeye - Natives reporter
official headwear sponsor
 
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