Impeding Hitler’s endeavour to capture Mont Blanc – The battle of the Vallée Blanche

A small, conspicuous metal gate is all that guards the high mountains above Chamonix from the hordes of Japanese tourists, eager to capture a glimpse of Western Europe’s highest mountain through the eyes of a lens. Without this selfless guardian, the Col du Midi would be a sea of Hello Kitty trainers, SuperDry jackets and more thumbs up than a picture of Kim Kardashian’s breakfast on Facebook. That is assuming they manage to make it down the ridge! Yet, 71 years ago the scene from the Aiguille du Midi was of a darker nature. Aspirant guides took on the physical form of Terminus to Mont Blanc. Their presence was not to guard against a few harmless tourists, but to keep Mont Blanc from the hands of a growing evil, to keep the Swastika from ever desecrating the summit.

Midi to Helbronner, a revised adventure...

How many times do you visit a single ski resort? Once? Twice? Return every season? I have visited a fair few resorts in my 2 years of skiing, but there is one that I keep returning to, with out fail: Chamonix.

But why? 

My Top 10 bivis

Sleep...

We all love it, we all need it. A fundamental part of any holiday or trip away is based around where we'll be counting sheep, the rest just falls into place. At the end of the day, all we can think about is getting into a nice comfy bed and closing the day. Some of us can function on very little, which bodes well if you're a climber. For any normal person, a bed, four walls and a roof is the accepted minimum, or standard should I say, if you count going camping as an acceptable holiday, in this case, at least some form of electrical hook up and functioning toilets and showers. But for us 'dirt bag' climbers, who don't deem a bed as 'necessary' and want everything free (even the beer), we'll get our heads down literally anywhere. So here are my top 10 bivis. They aren't ranked from worst to best, more the story behind them and their location. After all, why pay for something which I already have at home?

Chere Couloir - Triangle du Tacul

The Chere Couloir (II,4) The very top climber in at the 3rd belay and the bottom 2 making their way up to the 2nd.

We met the famous Dane Burns of the Coldthistle gear blog the day before on the steps back up to Montenvers, had a beer and then went for dinner with him. I hadn't had the opportunity to climb during my time out here, mainly due to lack of partners, so he offered to climb with me. We chose the Chere couloir as neither of us had done it, plus it's a ski in, ski out route so a great multi-activity day,

Toule glacier and the Vallee Noire

View from the Torino hut from the Dent dy Geant on the left, to the Integral ridge on the right

Do you believe in fate? Or what about luck? Do things happen for a reason or do we determine our own path through life? I used to believe that 'It'll never happen to me' and that it always happens to other people, but this attitude in the mountains can prove fatal and is a stupid way of thinking. You're never truly in control in this environment. Ok, so you're confident in your abilities and that you're prepared for the conditions. You've checked the weather and the avalanche bulletin. You've picked your intended route or descent because of the current conditions as it's a safer option. But you're in the mountains now. You can't predict every avalanche, or a serac fall. How stable was that snow bridge you just skied over? Oh, you didn't realise you just skied over a crevasse? And what about those rocks above you, frozen in time to the mountain face, waiting for the 'true loves first kiss' of the rising sun to awaken them? In these circumstances, timing and 'luck' are the things keeping you from having a bad day. As we found, when skiing the Toule glacier.

Grand & Petit Envers VB variation: Keeping up tradition...

FINALLY! The wind has died down and the midi is open! But unfortunately for Dave, he's heading home. However, he did make it all the way to the ice tunnel on the midi before heading back down via the lift as he didn't think he'll be back in time to get his transfer. Any way, me and Kev carried on down the ridge with our plan of skiing the Grand Envers. The sun was shining, the snow was good and off we went.

Dear Chamonix...It's not me, it's you...

The winds still haven't died down and so we've been forced to seek skiing elsewhere. We headed to Courmayeur on Thursday but like with Cham, the top bin was closed because of the wind. But still, we had the sun. Not really knowing what else there was off piste wise, we started to spot interesting little lines from the chair lifts. We did a few laps down a steep slope under the Bertolini chair which consisted of chalky snow and moguls which was good practice for steep skiing and a lot of fun, then headed over to the Aretu chair where we spied the remains of a small avalanche so went to investigate.

Grand Montets

Top of Bochard nearing the end of the day

Since Dave and Kev have arrived, the weather has deteriorated. High winds have closed the top bin of the GM and the Midi and the avalanche warnings are consistent across the range at 4, so we're forced to seek our fix else where. The obvious choice being off the Bochard and Herse lift on the GM. So over the last couple of days, we've been skiing pretty much every bit of Off piste the GM has to offer.

Col du Lac Cornu - Col de la Gliere, Aiguille Rouge

I arrived in Chamonix on Wednesday after the most stress free traveling I have ever had; no cues, no waiting (apart from the compulsory 2 hour wait before boarding the flight) and no rushing! I had 3 days on my own before Kev and Dave got here so had to pick my objectives carefully. With all the recent news about avalanches, I was reluctant to do much off piste, but I checked the forecast, looked at slopes below 30 degrees and decided to head up into the Aiguille Rouge and do a short ski tour.

Ben Nevis on the Grande Montets...and then some

And so, my 4th day of putting skins on skis was in a tired and hungover state and for the 3rd time in a week, at the base of Piere a Ric. Lets make this the LAST time I skin up this piste...

Ever!

In search of snow!

Conditions are shit in Chamonix at the moment. The lifts aren't opening until the 20th, which is the day I leave and no snow is forecast. So we have to be creative and intuitive and seek out those hidden areas which could potentially hold enough powder for a few keen turns. This is the first time, for me, being in Chamonix that you actually get funny looks for carrying skis!

learning to skin!

I arrived in Cham last night to cold temps and a dusting of snow, however the conditions are far from perfect. This morning, me and Colin decided to head up to Argentiere and skin up Pierre a Ric to the Lognan on the Grands Montets to see what conditions are like. There have been a few changes to the lifts since my time away, the most noticeable being the replacement of the Plan Joran chair lift to a brand new lift station and bubbles.

Chris Walker Memorial Trust

I just want give a huge thank you to the parents of Chris Walker for giving me a place on Alison Culshaws Off Piste for Mountaineers course via their sons memorial trust.

For those who don't know about it, sadly Chris died in an avalanche in Feb 2010 and his parents set up a trust fund in his name to help those with a passion for the mountains.

For more information visit his website:

http://www.chriswalkertrust.co.uk

Once again, thank you. This will be a huge step for me in gaining the knowledge and experience needes for becoming a British Mountain Guide...

...one day :)

Vallee Blanche - Twice in a day

"Dude, we have to stop, I've lost the tracks and I can't see where the crevasses are." The weather had taken over us, no matter how hard or fast we skied. It was now snowing and combined with the wind and low cloud, we had lost the tracks. Up ahead, the buried tracks passed over a snow bridge, open crevasses either side. Without the tracks or visability, we had no idea which crevasse would swallow us up. Too scared to carry on, we waited, forced to spend the night on the glacier. Just the 2 of us, alone in bad weather, on the Vallee Blanche...

Chamonix Skiing

Lady skier (on piste): THERE'S A CREVASSE BELOW YOU!!

Me (off piste): Yeah, I know, cheers!

Me: "shit.....Kev! Have you noticed the Bergschrund? We're above it."

Kev: "Shit...I have now, Back up! Onto the piste!

We'll pick up from here later......