Many many thanks to Chris and Rich for being great company this week, ski touring in the Queyras and round La Grave - and especially for lugging a heavy SLR up lots of big hills and taking amazing photos! A real week of losing ourselves in the woods amongst the birdsong – woodpeckers drilling, finches gathering pine nuts – and plenty of lovely snow.
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A quick roundup on the Haute Ubaye ski touring week, where we enjoyed some great powder skiing in the back of beyond with hardly anyone around – meeting just two other groups of ski tourers all week.
Sunday morning didn’t start too auspiciously, when another group leaving the hotel in La Grave walked off with my bags by mistake (think maps, guidebooks, all my planning, computer, passport – the lot..) Luckily we had another map so were able to set off anyway, reaching the Gite after a long snowy drive to enjoy a half day tour right from the door, with some lovely powder turns down through the woods. That evening, the compulsory food overload began, with our host urging us to finish every last bit of a massive meal – pointing out we’d need it for the week ahead..
Next day was overcast, so we skied from the Gite again up to the Col Sans Nom, with lunch and a transceiver training session en route. Above the tree line the snow was very variable and wind affected, so tricky to ski in flat light, but lovely again down in the trees – so the message was clear – don’t go too far above the woods!
Overnight it started to snow, so a low vis ascent of L’Aiguillon ensued - followed by brilliant deep powder skiing down through the woods a 1000m to the valley floor. Then it was just a case of skinning back up to the Gite in the afternoon - ready for hot chocolate, beer and more mountains of food.
After the previous days snowfall we decided on a lift assisted day over at St Anne – skiing fresh tracks and deep powder all day under full blue skies. You never get this much fresh snow in a big resort, so we were able to enjoy it to the very last run.
With temperatures dropping to minus 17, the van took longer to start each morning - but next we headed over to Larche for another blue skies day tour with great views up on the Tete de Plat Longe and more lovely powder on the descent.
By now the road up to the Gite had lost some of it’s terror, despite still being covered in snow - but nevertheless we headed part way back to La Grave before turning off to Argentiere Le Besse in order for a long last tour up the Crete Seyche, enjoying unfolding views of the Ecrins and Queyras massifs before the obligatory final 1300m powder run back to the van. All in all an excellent week, with everything we’d come looking for – solitude, adventure, great food and superb powder skiing.
A few pics taken yesterday up on the Aiguille du Midi on our Chamonix Backcountry Skiing Week. We had a one metre dump last Friday - so stacks of snow - but there’s been a lot of misty weather this week in Cham. Plenty of fresh tracks and powder over the last few days, with a nice day tour up the Bel Oiseau over in Switzerland to finish today – everyone was suitably whacked and happy by the end of the week, which is all you can ask for as a guide!
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Dave and Andy at the base of the Longhope on Orkney – Lukaz Warzecha.
A quick heads up about this – promises to be an excellent evening so get yourself a ticket!
GORE-TEX® products is sponsoring Dave MacLeod and Andy Turner’s upcoming lecture at the Royal Geographical Society in London.
The lecture, which talks place on the 8th February, is about their first free ascent of the Longhope route on St John’s Head last year. The lecture will be followed by a screening of Paul Diffley (Hot Aches Productions) Longhope Film, which won the people’s choice award at Kendal. This is a link to the trailer for the film: http://www.davemacleod.com/shop/rgslonghopenight.html
Tickets cost £12 and can be bought through Dave’s website http://www.davemacleod.com/shop/rgslonghopenight.html
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We still have good availability for Private Ski Guiding and scheduled tours for ready made groups – these are the final places on various scheduled ski tours this season:
Haute Ubaye Powder Touring : 29th Jan – 3rd Feb : 1 Place
Andorra – Ax Backcountry : 27th Feb – 3rd Mar : 3 Places
Bernese Oberland Ski Tour : 8th – 13th April : 4 Places
Gran Paradiso Ski Tour : 22nd – 27th April : 1 Place
If you’re interested, then drop us a line!
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Some pics from a recent trip to the Lakes. Martin Cooper, Jonny Morgan, Nick Wallis, Nick Williams and myself had 3 days visiting Gable, Scafell/Pikes Crag and Bowfell. With good early season mixed conds we managed ascents of Jabberwock (with some good airtime!), first ascent of a nice route on pikes crag, an attempt on Botterills Slab, Bowfell Buttress classic route and FWA of Rubicon Groove on Bowfell Buttress. Other teams out made impressive FWA’s of Angel of Mercy, a new route on BB, action on Cambridge crags and lots more activity throughout the Lakes – so a great weekend on the hill. Most impressively, we managed by the skin of our teeth to not write off my car on Honister pass when Jonny slipped off the bonnet and my chains snapped… Thanks to the Honister quarry workers who towed us away from the brink!
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Well we had a dry autumn, but the last two weeks has more than made up for that – with 3.25m of snowfall at the Grands Montets and counting… Early season powder conditions understandably have been excellent, though not with out a significant number of days of high avalanche risk to contend with.
Thank’s to Bairdy for the pic - from the British Mountain Guides CPD day in Les Houches this weekend - appropriately enough, it was about managing avalanche risk! To quote - ”getting a bunch of guides to slow down for a photo is not easy!”
Powder skiing in Les Houches this weekend
