As earlier announced we have had some nice riding and some editing going on the last two days. Solve and Henrik are riding with Christopher Lange and Henning Skjetne these days. Thanks to Henning and his friend Martin? we found maybe the only eazy-axcessible untuched snow left in the valley. Salut!
Shadow is the place to be. This we have found out in a north face in Le Tour, Chamonix. We had some good fun there today, and hoping to put together an edit from it. This teaser is all we got for now…
There been a while since the last post now, for several reasons.. I (Henrik) have had a little troubble with a knee. The rest of the guys have been on the mountain but with lack of snow and mostly suncriusing in Flegere there hasn`t really been much to write home about..
Anyways, since there hasn’t been any snow falling for a long time and high temps here lately we decided to do some trips around the Aiguille du Midi..
Mostly to get to know the terrain better, secondly with a hope to find some good snow. After a little planning around the breakfast-table yesterday the new plan became Aiguille du Plan 3613 mas. (a top on the ridge a little north-east of du Midi). The whole crew went up and started hiking, but realized that we didn`t have time to reach the top when we was about halfway up. So we returned to the matchbox for some tacos and vine-tasting with friends..
Our defeat on our way to the Aiguille du Plan was hard for Henning and Henrik. Therefore we(Henning and Henrik) dropped the last part of the vine-tasting and got up early today. To make it short, we reached the top (dropped the last 30m pure climbing, but still..). Unfortunately some fog came the last 50 hight-meters, but we got a few pics and OK snow on the decent:)
Story from Solve, Henning and Filip:
Today we had a plan to ride down to Hellbronner…..the plan changed. We set out at 08.00 a clock to make the first gondol up to Aguille du Midi, but went back to the apartment disappointment and had to wait for info until 10.00 am. After some additional breakfast and sleep we went back to gondol and went up to Aguille du Midi. From there we trialed down along side the fence and rode down skiers right towards Hellbronner. Got a few nice turns and traversed the rest. When we reached the bottom of the glacier up to the italian border Solve and Filip split their boards and everyone put their tractor skins on. Then we started the ascent up towards the Col orient de Toule where the italian border is. We tracked up the mountainside for several minutes before we reached the “top”. There we met the furious weather gods….! God almighty Wind had turned on us, we had to get to safety. Our goal to get to Hellbronner didn’t come through. We had to admit our defeat and turn around.
When we got back across the crevasses Solve and Filip mounted their board together and everyone was ready to set off towards Kollektivets safehouse (The Matchbox). Down in the valley the wind died down, but Solve and Filip with their splitboard met another challange. The glacier was flat and they had to start crosscountry-snowboarding. The few hundred meters was exhausting. Scootch, scootch…awwwh. Finally the glacier decented and we were back on track. But some swedes who traversed above us made it a lot more frightning than it should have been. With avalanche risk and some drunken old swedes as obstacles on our way down we made it to safety. We’re happy to be alive to tell you this story…=)
Written by
Koeningsbier and Bache XO
Based on a true story!
As we told you yesterday, we hit some good snow down the Vallee Blanche. Finally put together this video edit from 2 days of riding from the top of Aguille du Midi to the train down Montenvers.
When we set out for freeriding on a glacier we always bring our safety-equipment. So shall you! We’ve come to that this is the necessaries in addition to the usual off-pist safety equipment: Harness, ice axe, crampons, rope(30-40 m), 2 prusik slings, slings(1×120, 1×60), 4-5 karbiners(mainly locking), icescrew for an anchor, (snowanchor).
Some of this equipment you share as a group, but always have in mind that you maybe the only one on top to rescue the rest.
A little reminder: Practice!! Don’t just use your equipment as bling!
After some shifty weather the last days, we woke up this morning(Tuesday) to bluebird and hopes of fresh, cold snow. Three of us grabbed our gear and sat course for Aiguille du Midi. Unfortunaly Henrik hurt his knee yesterday so he took a day to recover.
Our hopes were fulfilled! And we probably had the best snow so far this season. Under we have some documentation…
Filip wishes he had a periscope.
Filip with a spray
The past two days the crew has been in Courmayeur hunting faceshots. Thursday we tracked up some good snow, but had to do some hiking to find the real untouched sweetspots.. Today we went back since the snowfall kept on during thursday evening, smart choice! We had some real good snow today, pillows, sprays etc. Unfortunatly the lense on our helmetcam was all iced up after the first run today so all we got to show you is this little snowreport from thursday filmed on a cellphone;)
Suck your poles, we’re finally back in Chamonix! Henning, Henrik and Solve….still waiting for Filip, but not for long. Some of us have been here a few days, while others have had a more troubling travel to the powder capital. Which at this time ain’t got any powder at all. At least we got some turns after a hike for a couple of hours from the Aquille de Midi, to Hellbronner and beyond!
Spent the rest of the evening at Chambre Neuf with pitchers of beer and music from the legendary No Limits…..not sure of the last statement, but can’t complain anyways.
As I wrote in the last post we had some good fun in Verbier this weekend. At saturday we had too much fun to photo and the helmet-cam was left at home, but on Sunday I got some shots and Morten put some of it together in a simple edit so you guys can see what we`re talking about:
Now I`m back in Norway for Christmas, hopefully there will be some action here as well!
Time will tell..
Henrik
Frig.no
Outdoor Research
Uhrweder Sport