The hat!

The Chapeau Couloir, Sister of the Poubelle!

A high traverse round the top of the Lavancher Bowl, but drop below the first shoulder of the Aguille de Brochard, keeping high and head over the small col.

Skis on at the big rock!

Take the couloir skiers left, and continue down the powder gully!!!!

An awesome descent, however don't miss the exit path out to the left, just above the ice fall!

IF you do however; be preparred for a 6ft drop over an ice fall, followed by a landing onto sheet ice, NOT POWDER! A further 50m down the gully theres a nice little waterfall to contend with!

However, even with a 30m rope an escape route is possible! On the left there are 3 trees spaced 15m apart which seemed as good as any to lower yourself over the falls. Hit the foot path and ski down to Lavancher.

Courmayeur

With the intention of heading to helbronner we ended up in Courmayeur instead! But what a powder day!!!

Le Poubelle

So up the Grands Montets, head up the Brochard bubble and behind that fence on the left is the "Poubelle" pretty steep 50 deg in places and a few rocks to jump over, is this little beauty!

Currently requiring a 30m abseil in off one of the fence posts and theres a little ledge to put your skis on.

The snow was a bit icy at the top, but the bottom was deep fresh powder, and as we dropped into the Pas De Chevre there was only 1 track already down it! So deffinately not to rubbish!

The L'Encrenaz

600m up then 1200m off AMAZING POWDER

After a failed attempt yesterday, we again headed up to the top of L'index at flegere and up the drag lift.

After traversing around to Lac Blanc we headed up and around the foot of the Aiguille de la Perseverance. A tour up to the top of Col de L'Encrenaz in deep powder had one thought on the mind..........."the way down"

We cruised down a huge couloir of fresh powder with not a single other track for miles, before firing down two narrow gullys, the Nant de l'Eau Noire, still filled with virgin snow and ending up at the Col de Montets road.

After trying to hitch back into Cham for 5mins we decided to attempt to hitch to Vallorcine instead. A few minutes later and we were in the back of a french people carrier, with no seats sat on the floor listenin to french country heading to the train station at Buet!

Plan De Aguille

The weather was pretty crap up Flegere, so we retreated to the other side of the valley and headed up the midi!

Dropping in directly under the cable car wires the snow was deep and soft!!

Keep heading down then bear right and follow the gully round! All in amazing snow. Some nice drops here and there and we were in another deep powder gully!

THEN IT HAPPENED! Tom lost a ski, and 3 1/2 hrs later is was still lost!

so as we skied down on 2 skis tom had to endure it on one! Take the right hand gully and head through the trees to the cat track and home!

Teli-Heli!

Well a group of us all hit the park and with Nick hitting the kickers Big on his board I thought the Telimarks needed to prove themselves!



So first attempt, we landed a 360 on them!! OO Yeah!

Central Couloir

After finally finding a printer we headed up to Grands Montets complete with our top cable car reservation in hand. Only to find no queue so fired straight up the lift!

We headed right, then skiers left with the intention of sking the Pas de Chevre, but with the thousands of tracks already down there we thought one of the Variants would be best.

A quick peak down the Rectaligne coulouir and we'd decided that "Central Couloir" was better and we were right. A complete face with no lines on it had us back joining up with the traditional Pas de Chevre and a group of numptys trying to get through the bottle neck.

A quick hop and a jump over some rocks and we were heading hard left towards the Dru.
Over a few HUGE crevases and traversing still left before a relaxing ski through the boulders on nice snow. Until Andy decided to fall down a crevass. He dusted himself off an we continued down to the base of the morraine line below the Dru. An hrs skin up the edge of this had as at another untouched piece of snow! (not bad for half term!).

Awesome snow, (even if a little slidy in places) and then rejoin the exit for the Pas d C! You still need a rope to abseil off the tree next to the ice fall, before heading back to Montenvers!

Col de la Bûche

Aguille de L'M

470m UP vs 1750 m DOWN

As four of us traversed across to the foot of the West Face of the Col De La Buche, we passed below Lac Bleu, Blaitiere & Nantillons glacier before arriving at the foot 1 hr 45 later for lunch.
Ladders up the rock face!

An hours hike up the colouir, started off with a set of ladders straight up the face before having to boot pack the final 200m
The Route Up

At the top of the couloir we were faced with 50 degree slope of pure powder for 1000m of descent! Skiing right heading below the Petis Charmoz and onto the Thendia glacier! we kept cruising down heading towards the Mer de Glace via another narrow gully!

The couloir suddenly decided to end in a 30m drop which required a nice little abseil over the cliff. A race back down the Mer De Glace just in time to catch the last train from Montenvers.

The Telemarks go to Verbier

The Telemarking is still improving, reds and blacks are pretty much sorted, and with a lack of off piste available the Park seemed like the next step!!

Another super sunny day at Verbier!



The run in to the red kicker!Mid flight on the teles! And it was landed!!

To the Argentiere Hut and Beyond!

From the top of the Grands Montets Cable, ski over the back and cut off the piste heading right, cross the Argentiere glacier and head up to the Argentiere Hut (3233m) after 1 1/2 hr skin!

A variety of methods, including ice climbing with snow shoes on, were used to finally make it for lunch on the huts "Balcony."

Another 30 min boot pack and we were at the Bottom of the Glacier des Améthystes about to start our descent.

A quick shelter from the wind before setting off.

A descent of fresh pow and 10 mins later we were back at the bottom with the hike out 2 look forward to...........

Cosmique Coulouir!

1/2/2010

Cosmique Couloir.

3x 30m rappels into the couloir. Steep and Deep, mainly around 50 degrees!

Looking back up the couloir


Not a place one wants to fall over on! Awesome snow however a few rock bands still require delicate manouvering over. Deep powder and a traverse round led us onto the "Rond Glacier."

The exit could do with a little more snow as side stepping down a 70 degree slope of bullet ice 170cm wide with 40 to 60ft drops on either side, complete with crevases wasn't the most appealing of exits!
Steep and Deep! (looking down)

The descent continued down a river bed ending up at the entrance to the Mont Blanc Tunnel!

A sweet day!