Ski Touring!

Today has been an amazingly sunny and beautiful day in the Chamonix Valley and we took full advantage of it by heading out for a tour. We caught the lift up Flegere and then the pommer to the top of the Index before skinning up (500m ascent) and over the col next to the Aiguille de la Floria. A descending traverse took us beneath the Aiguille du Belvedere and we then bootpacked (350m ascent) up the narrowing couloir which had a pretty steep section just before the top. I wasn't expecting it to be quite so sunny and warm...after using lots of suncream on my face I felt like it was more like summer in the Alps than February - awesome!! After a quick bit to eat we headed down to a small col and on to the top of the Mort Glacier (great name...hmmm!) for an amazing powder descent down the Berard Valley that just seemed to go on and on - a glorious 1550m of it! There were many, many smiles as we arrived in Le Buet and caught the train home to Chamonix with a glass of vin chaude - I'm not sure that days get much better than that!!

Winter Ice

Since being in Chamonix I've had the chance to get out ice climbing a bit, most recently over the border in Switzerland at Trient. On a day that turned out to be lovely and sunny we found better ice than we had expected and the walk-in gave us a good warm-up. We climbed three pitches (the first pitch being a lot steeper than it looked!) before abseiling back to the ground via our own Abolokov anchors: these are made by placing two ice screws into the ice in a V-shape, removing the screws to leave a V-shape hole and then passing some cord through the V-shape using a special threader (or a bit of coat hanger if you don't have one!) that you can tie an overhand in to leave a loop of rope through the ice to abseil off. It is always important that these are tested with the back-up of an ice screw when the first person goes down. This day of climbing was the second outing of a new set of Black Diamond Turbo Express ice screws that I had purchased back in November. I can honestly say that they did not fail to disappoint in any way when I was on lead and it was nice to know that I had ice screws that were sharp and easy to use to hand...see this http://www.ukclimbing.com/ review for more details: http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/review.php?id=860

Cat and I took to the Grands Montets glacier to practice rope work a few weeks ago. We were lucky enough to have some Alaskan-style weather too with the cold westerlies that day. We looked at Crevasse rescue and also spent some time analysing the snow pack. It's good to dig a snow pit whenever we have the chance to get an idea of what the snow's doing and keep learning how the snow transforms depending on the weather.

Although we will be travelling on snow shoes in Alaska, we plan to take skis in case of any spare days when we could put them to use. As well as snow shoeing up hills as part of our training programme, we're ski touring as much as possible at the moment. Even if it's just skinning up the home run when we get a couple of spare hours in the evening, it's a very enjoyable way to train!

Avalanche Awareness

On Monday 9th Feb I undertook some avalanche training with Icicie Guides based in Chamonix. We used snowshoes to access areas above Vallorcine and took plenty of opportunities to assess the snowpack in different locations and practise using transceivers for both single and multiple burials. My experience of evaluating snowpacks has largely been based in Scotland and the Alps in Summer and so it was interesting to compare things to the Winter Alpine environment. A Ruschblock test showed that the slopes were pretty stable in the second area that we used although just around the corner in the first area there was evidence of recent avalanche activity and while in the area we witnessed a powder slough from a band of rock up high which then triggered more debris from a fairly steep snow slope below - a good reminder that while slopes may be stable in one area, local factors may make things very hazardous closeby.

How to ski glaciers safely!

Emily: A few weeks ago I got the chance to feature in a film advising people how to ski glaciers safely. The filming took place on the Aiguille du Midi and the Petit Envers route of the Vallee Blanche. Simon Christy was filming and Simon Abrahams and Andy Perkins, both IFMGA Guides, were co-ordinating and looking after safety aspects. Tom Wilson-North was there as token boarder and managed to take these some nice photos, including the one above, on his Iphone! It was a great day and I learnt a lot of information relevant for Alaska, where we will spend several weeks travelling and camping on glaciers. We look forward to seeing the film soon - there will be a link here to see it on YouTube as soon as it's ready.