More Snow & Skiing 2

Later in the week saw me team up with the lovely Steph and my brothers Oli and Dom 'witness the fitness' Willett for a return to the Belvedere couloir in the Aiguilles Rouges. This is a north facing couloir descending from the col du Belvedere after a fairly mellow 2 hour skin. As there is a fixed rappel anchor at the top, lots of people abseil/sideslip the first 60m creating a deep rut. So the top 45-50 degree section is often virtually unskiable, but not quite today - junky snow where it was easy to catch a tip led to much nicer smooth powder below and any stress at the top of the couloir was soon forgotten and put down to 'good training'. The unnerving thing about this couloir are the rocks right in the fall line at the bottom of the steep bit - you don't want to fall!Pats on the back all round. There would have been some 'high 5's' but we don't do that kind of emotion... (Belvedere couloir 45 degrees, passages of 50, for 150m 4.2 E2) I hooked up with Simon Christy on Friday. Simon is an ace ski instructor living in the three valleys and we have had a number of great ski adventures over the years. Today would be a great mini adventure and a challenging technical ski as it would turn out! In mediocre weather we set off for the Breche Martin-Encrenaz, again in the Aiguilles Rouges (the lower altitude skiing has been awesome this season) with its north powdery couloir being the objective. Normally we would climb up the line we would ski so that there are no little surprises on the way down and we can assess the snow. But today we had some time pressure and opted for a traverse of the Breche, climbing up the south couloir and skiing down the north. According to the guide book an abseil is 'sometimes necessary' on the north side, so we figured if it looked sketchy we would just ski down the way we had come up - the south couloir. Anyway, the 300m bootpack up the South Couloir was purgatory - knee to thigh deep with a thick but just breakable crust - and took an age. But we got to the breche in the end and looked down our intended line of descent. Hmmm. It was steep and the snow looked great, but there was definitely going to be a significant vertical abseil required down a rock wall. We weren't keen to ski the horrible snow in the south couloir, particularly as the north snow looked sooo good, but discretion is the better part of valour and so the south it was. It turned out to be wuite a challenging ski! The couloir was quite U shaped and due to a load of old avalanche debris in the middle we had to ski the steeper sides on difficult snow - icy changing to breakable crust mid turn. All good practice! (Breche Martin-Encrenaz South Couloir 45 degrees for 150m, passage of 50 degrees. 4.2 E2) Finally, on Sunday, Oli, Steph, Emma and I headed up the Italian Helbronner to the Toule glacier. We found some great fun deep snow conditions but it was definitely challenging with a thick breakable windslab on top of deeeep powder. Face shots all round but good technique and strong legs required! Being careful on any convexities we made our first lap and had a cheap and tasty cappucino. Steph and Emma dutifully headed back to the office to keep Dream Guides in business, while I shirked any responsibility and headed up twice more with Oli. After all he had come up from Monaco and I couldn't let him down could I? We found safer conditions in 2 great little couloirs accessible right from the top lift station at 3450m. First off was the Torino or 'Toilet' couloir - a funnel shaped thing with a 45 degree entrance and less steep but narrow exit giving 300m of pure fun and next was the narrow and imposing Passarella Couloir. This is a solid 45 degrees and a striking line to ski. Today it was trickier than usual with a narrow section requiring some insecure side stepping over some rocks about two thirds of the way down. Great fun, great snow and tired legs - a good feeling! So that's my round up - thanks for reading - I will try and keep them shorter next time! And add some photos too (a technical glitch my end...) Ciao Guy