This week has been a difficult week. The Binje Brothers have been down here for the past 6days. They are great people with good energy and I really wanted to give them some fun skiing. The weather forecast was crap with high temperatures, bad visibility and just small amounts of precipitation pretty much over the hole Alps. Our first had choice for this week was Cortina. But the weather was even worse there than here in Chamonix and sins I have never been there that was out of the question. Onsight guiding in bad visibility is a bad combination.
We stayed in my home area and just took every day as It came.
Day 1
We whet to Courmayeur. to our suprise we found some fun skiing in the north facing forests. It was borderline of been to warm, but it worked and we were all alone.
Day 2
Hellbronner on the Italian side seemed like a good choice for the day. It’s higher and there had been a quit a lot of precipitation on altitude. And there is a good restaurant for lunch. It turned out to be a good choice. There were only us and a hand full of other people, and the snow was great. A little heavy towards the end but still good.
Hellbronner on the Italian side seemed like a good choice for the day. It’s higher and there had been a quit a lot of precipitation on altitude. And there is a good restaurant for lunch. It turned out to be a good choice. There were only us and a hand full of other people, and the snow was great. A little heavy towards the end but still good.
Day 3
We whet up and did the Italian vallee blanch. Down at about 2400m we put on the skins and walked 800 vertival meters up to col de Tacul. This tour have a spectacular ambiance. You are walking under the Dent du geant and Arete Du Rochefort. From the col we did a little steeper variation further to the skiers right. It is the third couloir to the right when you looked from above. I can highly recommend this variation. Fun skiing with good snow and it is rarely skied.
We whet up and did the Italian vallee blanch. Down at about 2400m we put on the skins and walked 800 vertival meters up to col de Tacul. This tour have a spectacular ambiance. You are walking under the Dent du geant and Arete Du Rochefort. From the col we did a little steeper variation further to the skiers right. It is the third couloir to the right when you looked from above. I can highly recommend this variation. Fun skiing with good snow and it is rarely skied.
Day 4
The visibility was next to zero both in Chamonix and Courmayeur so we decided to go further down the Aosta valley. Up above Morgex there are some nice ski touring terrain. The top is at 2600m and there are some fun north facing tree skiing to be had there. Strangely enough the sun was shining down here. We thanked the generosity of the weather Gods and had a great day out. It was so good that we looped the lower section twice.
The visibility was next to zero both in Chamonix and Courmayeur so we decided to go further down the Aosta valley. Up above Morgex there are some nice ski touring terrain. The top is at 2600m and there are some fun north facing tree skiing to be had there. Strangely enough the sun was shining down here. We thanked the generosity of the weather Gods and had a great day out. It was so good that we looped the lower section twice.
Day 5
The visibility is back in Courmayeur and it has snowed quite a bit. To say that it was good visibility might be stretching the truth a bit. But it was skiable and it did clear during the day. The snow however, was amazing. We looped a couple of times from The Youla lift and finished from the Arp when it cleared and skied down the Dolonne valley. We had first tracks pretty much the hole way and the entire valley to our self.
The visibility is back in Courmayeur and it has snowed quite a bit. To say that it was good visibility might be stretching the truth a bit. But it was skiable and it did clear during the day. The snow however, was amazing. We looped a couple of times from The Youla lift and finished from the Arp when it cleared and skied down the Dolonne valley. We had first tracks pretty much the hole way and the entire valley to our self.
Day 6
Another great day in Courmayeur. Today it was good visibility. It’s amazing to leave an overly crowded rainy Chamonix with low clouds and come to a quiet Courmayeur.
When we came to the top of the Arp we were the only ones there. Just us and a Russian couple. It was quite high avalanche danger that day and these two didn’t have and avalanche equipment. I told them it was a bad idea to ski from the Arp with no avalanche gear since there are no pistes up there, but that only seemed to have the opposite effect. Its funny how that works.
We set of to do the Arp valley. To get to the Arp Valley you need to tour for about 30 min. 30 min well invested. We had the Arp Valley all to our self and there were no tracks. After a great lunch we whet up again and skied the Dolonne valley from the Youla.
A great finish to a good week.
Another great day in Courmayeur. Today it was good visibility. It’s amazing to leave an overly crowded rainy Chamonix with low clouds and come to a quiet Courmayeur.
When we came to the top of the Arp we were the only ones there. Just us and a Russian couple. It was quite high avalanche danger that day and these two didn’t have and avalanche equipment. I told them it was a bad idea to ski from the Arp with no avalanche gear since there are no pistes up there, but that only seemed to have the opposite effect. Its funny how that works.
We set of to do the Arp valley. To get to the Arp Valley you need to tour for about 30 min. 30 min well invested. We had the Arp Valley all to our self and there were no tracks. After a great lunch we whet up again and skied the Dolonne valley from the Youla.
A great finish to a good week.
Thanks guys for a great week. See you soon in Norway!
RSS Feed
