Category Archives: Skiing

Glacier Skiing at La Grave
Jul 31 2011

2012 Ski Program!

Yes, the final job before we go on holiday – next winters ski program is now up and running…

The 2012 Backcountry Skiing  dates and prices are now online.  The season kicks off with January’s Backcountry Skiing Weeks in La Grave and Chamonix, plus our Backcountry Skills Course in La Grave.

For February we have a new powder touring week in the Haute Ubaye in the southern French Alps, plus exciting tours in the Queyras, Picos de Europa and Andorra.

March brings round our Albula Alps Tour, the Intro Ski Mountaineering Course, Haute Route, Stubai and Hohe Tauern in Austria.

The high spring touring season in April sees us in the Silvretta, Bernese Oberland, Grand Combin, Gran Paradiso and Haute Route – then finally the season brings to a close with our Greenland Ski Expedition and Swiss 4000m Tour in May.

Trips and courses are suitable for beginner ski tourers, right through to experts, so if you’re keen for a bit of ski touring action next winter, just drop us a line and we’ll fill you in on the details

May 13 2011

Greenland Ski Expedition 2011

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Back from our Greenland Ski Expedition and another brilliant trip – arctic powder skiing this year and a great team – it doesn’t get much better, thanks everyone!  It’s been a hard call editing photos (too many to choose from), but these are my faves.

A quick report on the trip:  we had an unusually snowy April this year in Greenland (all the fine weather in the Uk pushed things further north!) so had some unsettled weather to start with, making day tours around Kumuuit, before the weather cleared and we were able to head in.

The flip side of this mean’t we then enjoyed brilliant north facing powder skiing on high peaks and glaciers during the main part of the trip, so it proved to be a real bonus.

Heading back out to Kumuuit and onto Kulusuk by boat/dogsled we finished off with some great spring snow skiing at lower altitudes on the islands along the coast – the views around here were fantastic…

As ever, i’m keen to do a return trip in a year or two’s time – possibly heading further north to a more remote area, before skiing out to civilisation – so if you’re interested, then let me know and we’ll stay in touch.

Al P

May 3 2011

Zermatt 4000′ers Ski Tour (and other adventures)

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Dave Hollinger teamed up with Owen Wallis for a private week of ski mountaineering and skills training – again some top weather and a few classic summits. Report in from Dave:

Day 1 – Aiguille d’Entreves,Chamonix:  with a mountaineering flavour to the week this provided an excellent technical warm-up and some much needed acclimatisation for the things to come.

Day 2 – Breithorn and Ayas Hut:  The Klein Matterhorn lift made the journey to Owen’s first 4000m peak somewhat more gentle on the lungs.  With preparations well under way for the Mezzalama Ski Mountaineering Race, it wasn’t difficult following the poled track along to the Ayas hut as the clouds rolled in.

Day 3 – Pollux:  Crossover day, via the Schwartze Glacier to escape the Mezzalama hoards but ideal to make an early ascent of Pollux, another of the majorZermatt4000m peaks.  Some steep ropes made for a brutish warm up before a superb easy but exposed snow crest led to the small summit which we had to ourselves.  The ski down the Schwartze glacier included the anticipated roped up section through some tricky crevasses but a not so anticipated battle with some rather unfriendly moraine having made the decision to leave the glacier early.  Still, the afternoon skin to the new and rather grand Monte Rosa hut left us with a good thirst for a well earned beer.

Day 4 – Grand Traverse:  Although not particularly technical, the long journey from the Monte Rosa Hut to the Britannia Hut kept the interest with the short sections to reach the Gorner Gletscher and the final climb to the Adlerpass.

Day 5 – Relocation:  Fresh snow and a wash-out forecast saw us bail out from Saas (along with many others) in the hope that we could capitalise on some good skiing and a slightly better forecast the following day further west.  Assured that we could ski into Saas, it seems the Swiss may have an equally ‘Scottish’ take on what constitutes fresh snow on a firm base (of rocks!).  In any event, we made the short trip around to Arolla and made light work of the skin from the village to a friendly reception at the Dix Hut.

Day 6 – Mt Blanc de Cheillon:  Lots of teams still Haute Routeing but we enjoyed a quiet ascent to the winter summit of Mt Blanc de Cheillon.  Our hopes of traversing to the summer summit were dashed by some rather Peruvian looking snow crests but, no drama, we thus enjoyed putting in some of the best powder turns of the trip.

May 3 2011

Grand Combin Ski Tour

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Jonny teamed up with Dave Hollinger to lead our Grand Combin Ski Tour on the 17 April, and judging by the feedback it went down pretty well! Report in from Dave, thanks guys.

Day 1 – to Cabane Brunet:  a high snow level meant a short hike up through early spring meadows and alpages before skinning the rest of the way to a wonderfully situated hut, above which conditions looked superb.  PM spent doing some transceiver practise and a bit of skinning to survey the terrain.

Day 2 – Mt Rogneux:  daylight start allowed a pleasant skin up through complex terrain to gain the final snow crest of Mt Rogneux.  The teams skied two of the steeper lines on the north face, enjoying some surprising powder, before another short skin to regain the superb spring slopes leading back to the hut.

Day 3 – Pointe de Boveire:  earlier start for the longer skin towards Pointe de Boveire.  A short technical ridge provided the interest, some ropework and a good deal of exposure before giving way to a series of steep kickturns edging out over uncompromising rock cliffs.  We made the decision to turn around but had the advantage of fresh tracks off the ridge and perfect untracked spring turns all the way back underneath the Petit Combin towards the cabane.

Day 4 – The link day:  Over the Col des Avouillons to the Panossiere hut.  The south side of the col was bare of snow and required a short hand rail to gain the steep summer path before traversing down onto the glacier and roping up for the skin back up to the hut.  PM was spent doing some prussic and crevasse rescue practise.

Day 5 – Tournelon Blanc:  Early start and gentle warm-up skin up the glacier before tackling the steep 500m climb up to the Mulets de la Tsessette.  More gentle climbing before donning crampons for the final climb, on foot, to the summit.

Day 6 – Petit Combin:  The Glacier des Follats had been staring us for the last couple of days and was to provide the main interest of the descent from the summit.  The long but gentle skin via the Col de Corbassiere led through some spectacular scenery but, after visiting the summit, it was the untracked line we’d spied from the hut that provided the highlight – with perfect snow from top to bottom.  After a quick lunch stop we made the journey down to Fionnay both on skis and foot and a well earned beer.

Dave H.

oberland 3
May 3 2011

Bernese Oberland Ski Tour

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Some more good pics from a very sunny touring season – this time from our Bernese Oberland Ski Tour in mid April, again led by Jonny Baird. A mixture of spring snow, powder and mainly sunshine – again! Thanks to Klemen Gricar for the shots.

Apr 15 2011

Haute Route 2011

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A few photos here from our latest Haute Route Ski Tour at the end of March - guided by Jonny Baird. A great week with some excellent weather and good skiing. Thanks Jonny and eveyone on the tour, espec Nicola for the pics!

Apr 13 2011

Gressoney

Final week of the season for me in the alps – skiing with the family in Gressoney.  Deserted pistes and good spring  snow, the kids are getting pretty good now – skiing black runs and starting to venture off piste – I wish I’d been able to do that when I was six!

There’s nice off piste skiing in the mornings on spring snow and enough here to finish off the season, unlike most of France and much of western Switzerland - so if you’re desperately seeking the white stuff, Gressoney is a pretty good bet at the moment.

An important note on current avalanche conditions – last week the hot weather brought a lot of avalanche activity, particularly on steeper north facing slopes - with full depth wet slides sloughing off all over the place on a couple of hot afternoons.  If you are out touring or off piste skiing, then you need to be especially careful this season with route planning and timings throughout the day, as there have been a lot of accidents recently.

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Apr 8 2011

Stubai Ski Tour

Yet another week with great north facing powder slopes – this time over in Austria on the Stubai Ski Tour.  All that beer and schnapps didn’t seem to slow things down too much – at least on the way down!

Good to catch up with Andy Perkins and team as well, skiing in the same area.  Austrian huts lived up to all the usual expectations – hot showers every night, near restaurant service and a well stocked bar -  I think we need to explore this country further..

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Apr 2 2011

Albula Alps Ski Tour

Great weather and fresh powder every day on the Albula Alps Ski Tour this year, though quite a bit of care required on the avalanche front in Eastern Switzerland at the moment. 

We changed plans a couple of times during the week in light of conditions, but it didn’t affect the quality of the skiing, which was excellent – and some nice summits too.

Lovely huts to round it all off - thanks everyone for being such a good team – hope you enjoy the pics!

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Mar 14 2011

Picos De Europa Ski Touring 2011

What a difference a few days makes - we’ve just enjoyed 5 days perfect weather, ski touring in the Picos De Europa in northern Spain.  Based on the north side of the range for the best selection of touring, we visited Fuente De, the Eastern and Central Massifs, as well as the Valle De Las Monetas. 

As usual - plenty of wild skiing, nice spring snow and a true wilderness feeling in these very special mountains.

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