MALLORY PORTER

Over 1000m of vertical ascent up the North face of the Aigiulle du Midi! And the final route of the season!!!

With a guide book time of between 3 and 6 1/2 hrs when we reached that top cable car station in just under 4hrs it was deffinately a relief!

Soft snow made the start a slow process from the mid station though as we gained altitude the snow hardened up which sped up progress.

As the temperature increased the snow started to soften rapidly leading to a very large avi slide around lunch time! As we hid behind a rock waiting for it to pass it seemed a suitable time for some food! The final ascent up the snow slope below the cable car before passing under the huge bergshcrund joining the bottom of the midi arete was finished with a last photo opportunity before heading back into town for beers!!!

The Cheesery!

The Cheserys, above Col du Montets has some nice big multi pitch routes so we thought we'd head up and check it out.

The walk in is a 45min bushwack through the shrub upto the the crag. Though there was a chance to make some new friends on the way up!
At the base of the route it would be recommended not to leave bags/food/maps at a level that a craft mountain goats can get to!! They especially like Maps of the sourrounding area but not fig rolls apparantly!

The 3rd pitch is still a little wet with some running water pretty much flowing down the line of bolts.

watch out for some of the bolt hangers too! Most of them require a tighten before you clip in!! especially the abseil hangers!!!

Italy........ but NO PIZZA!

ROAD TRIP!! All loaded up in the van we headed through the Mt B tunnel to Italy. First stop was at La Thuile to climb at "Palestra Alpina" a loose rocked area with loads off rock fall and all in all pretty sketchy. So probably not recommended!
Palestra Hans Marguerettaz was stop 2! WHAT A DIFFERENCE! Solid rock, nice lines and HUGE multipitches.
Day 2

1st stop Levergone, after you walk past the "crack den" look alike entrance it opens up into a nice little spot. Good rock with a variety of routes, big pockets, slab routes and even sum crimpy 8b's!
After a 2 hr detour looking for pizza we failed and went for a sandwhich instead!

La Ravoire was the final stop of the trip. High up on hill with some epic views down into the valley exposure can feel high. All pretty narly routes round the side. But some chilled climbing in the car park!

The Cunningham!!

The Cunningham Couloir!

The route had been on my wish list for most of the season, mainly due to its name, and eventually the weather looked like it had cleared and the reports were saying that there was a good layer of snow in the gully too!The guide reports the gully as a 55 degree unpleasant route, which he'd only skied once, and never bothered again!
So we set of early to check it out. On arrival at the top of the Midi we found we were not the only guys wanting to ski the Cunningham. Glenn Plake, world renowned Freeskier, and his mates were already preparing for the 140m abseil, the first 40m being freefall, into the base of it.
Once they were clear we followed suit to gear up at the top of the gully. Matt wanting to "one up" Plake started a good 2m's higher before side slipping the next few metres before an epic descent of knee deep powder followed all the way out to the bottom.
At this point one should be VERY aware of the route. As the exit skiers left, marked as a dotted line in the guide, can only be descibed as an exit if one has no concept of self preservation or is high on smack! However once commited and due to the weather we were forced to continue. 350m of abseiling on a few very dubious anchors we'd made it back onto the correct exit route, skiers right at the bottom of the Cunningham.
Unfortunately the viz was now down to about 15m and as we skied down traversing right we headed to high putting ourselves above a pretty large cliff. A small back track and we were again on the descent.

Eventually we made it to the level of the old Midi lift station, at this level the snow is becoming very heavy and pretty sticky, but with no other options we carried onto the current midstation, by traversing around under the Aiguille and hiking the final morraine ridge.

As we were now well past last lifts all that was now required was to descend the final 1350m into Cham. Now the first 350m were fine skiing down rather heavy but still semi snow like, snow. But around 2000m the snow rapidly dissapears, so after watchin a few Chamois cross in front of us and a small altercation with some shubbery the skis were off and we started the boot pack back into town arriving at the cars 1 hr n 1/2 later, BUT all in once piece!!

(PHOTOS to follow!)

Freeride Days 2010!

Closing Party for Grand Montets!

Complete with swimming pool followed by hot tubs!