Col de la Cicle 2377

Yesterday, I went out on my second outing with the Chamonix chapter of the Club Alpin Français (CAF). First a word on this venerable institution:  The Chamonix chapter of the CAF was established in 1902 by MD Michel Payot. Since those days it has seen a handful of venerable presidents and the current one is Monsieur Roland Ravanel. Roland was born in 1938 in Chamonix, a man with a passion for the mountain and an avid skier; he became a ski instructor and mountain guide. He belongs to the prestigious “Compagnie des Guides de Chamonix” (where he has held leadership positions) and the ski school of Argentière, his childhood village. He is still skiing and guiding. As a schoolmaster for over 25 years in Chamonix, he has introduced nearly a thousand kids to skiing and mountain climbing. On top of all that he is the nicest guy you’ll ever meet.

The tour took us from Notre Dame de la Gorge (about 3,800 feet) where the trail head is to Col de la Cicle. It turned up to be pretty long slog as in miles travelled to Col de la Cicle which is an east facing slope that starts at about 35 degrees angle. The weather was glorious, the avalanche risk evaluated at Medium (level 3) but mostly for south facing slopes and we had about a foot of freshies on a fairly solid snow pack 10 feet deep on top. We had an opportunity to ski the steeper and longer Col des Chasseurs but some of us (including me) voted against not wanting to tickle the great white one too much (I was however a bit jealous and felt some regret when I saw a couple of guys get away with it a couple of hours later…).  

Here are the pictures (click to enlarge):

A bit less than an hour into the hike the ridge line we are looking for appears.
This picture shows from left to right ("Col" stands for pass): Coll du Bonhomme,
Aiguille de la Pennaz and Col des Chasseurs.

A view of Col des Chasseurs that gives a sense of how tasty this thing ca be...

Col de la Cicle

Col de la Cicle: The slope

Col de la Cicle: The "backside" with

Unlimited possibilities, see the village of Contamines down in the valley where the hike starts.

From left to right: Aiguille de Bionnassay 4052 m (13,295), Dome du Miage

 3670 m (12,042), and Mont Blanc 4810m (15,783)

Close up of the Mt Blanc summit

Close up of the snowfield of the Dome du Miage that under good
conditions is the start of a  ski run dropping 9,000 feet...

On the way out: Sunset in the mountains...

Mont Joly (Beaufortain)

Saturday I had my first outing with the Chamonix chapter of the Club Alpin Français (CAF).  The weather window was limited to the morning after which a storm was coming in the PM.  We went to Mt Joly which was not the first choice but a compromise to the avalanche conditions. Mt Joly is just south of the Mt Blanc Massif. Although not too remarkable an objective t is one of those features you see prominently from the high way driving towards Chamonix and I like to ski those if nothing else to kill that curiosity that comes with checking out all skiable lines from the road… Although the conditions wern't ideal and the snow a bit sun affected, the skiing ended up being surprisingly good.

Here are the pictures (click to enlarge):

On the way up; view of the Mt Blanc massif ridge line. The pyramidal peak seen in the middle of the
picture is  the Aiguille de Bionnassay 4052m (13,292 feet). The pass to the left of it is the
Col de Miage and further to the left the two Dones de Miage.

Close up of the Aiguille de Bionnassay.

The objective of the day: Mont Joly

What it looks like from the road on a blue bird day...

Max at 2012 SCARA in Val d'Isere

In Europe the “Scara” is considered to be the World Championship of the youth. Initiated 32 years ago by the ski club of Val d’Isere (this is Jean Claude Killy’s club) as a contest between its members and all the international teams that go there to train this event now includes all clubs of France that qualifies against all foreign clubs that qualify.

From 3 to 6 April 2012, the 32nd edition involved 300 volunteers and 1400 young competitors aged 11 to 14 from 30 different countries. The Scara has seen an impressive list of champion seeds, such as Luc Alphand, Jean-Baptiste Grange and other world cup winners.

Last season Max qualified for this event which is for evermore engraved in his mind, here are a couple of pictures of him coming down the hill:

This is Max coming down the super g course...

...and here he is further down the same course.

This is what focusing can look like...

La Roche Plane

Last Thursday on 12/12/12 I went to the Roche Plane, in the massif of the Beaufortin, with a group from the “Club Alpin Français”. This was my first outing with the club and the snow conditions were amazing although the avalanche risk at Medium (Risk 3) were less than ideal. Because of the avalanche risk it was decided that the relatively low angle of La Roche Plane would be a suitable destination. The initial objective (scheduled well ahead of time) had been the nearby “Legette du Mirantin”. We left at 7 am from Annecy and drove 1:30 h to just a little past the town of Beaufort and parked at 1,030m for the start of the hike to the 2,165m of Roche Plane.  The net elevation gain is a bit less than 4,000 feet and this was a full on spectacular bluebird day with a 4 foot snowpack at the bottom of the valley and about 6 - 7 feet on top. In addition we had a foot plus of freshies, it could have been worst and it has... 

Here are the pictures (click to enlarge): 

On the opposite side of the valley: Sunrise on Aiguille de Grand Fond.

The sun is still rising... 

...and here too.

Ski in ski out anyone?

View towards the end of the valley.

Mid-point rest spot on the way up.

Overview of the valley from a higher vintage point.

La Legette du Mirantin. This was the original objective but Risk 3 "Medium" says: Avalanches may be triggered on many slopes even if only light loads are applied. On some slopes, medium or even fairly large spontaneous avalanches may occur so we decided to not go tickle the great white one..

When you do ski la Legette du Mirantin, then this is what the ski out looks like.
You can see why it wasn't that easy to turn down.. 

This is La Roche Plane our more modest objective of the day but the powder was price less.

This was our dining room...

This is the Pierra Menta across the valley from us, a high point of international AT racing.

On the way back down view on a typical town of the Beaufortin.

And this is where it all ends with a beer or two... "Randonneur" is the alpine
tourer, a testimony to the valley's dedication to the righteous cause...

Powder day at le Chinaillon (Aravis)

Set above the village of le Grand Bornand and linked to the resort by the same name, le Chinaillon is an old alpine village in the best tradition. Today I got to ski some good powder (about two feet of it) in a snowstorm that’s like on its tenth day (at least it feels like it) and the forecast tells us this is supposed to go on into next week. Here are the winter wonderland pictures (click to enlarge):

About two feet of freshies.

Can't resist the little house on the mountain...

More ski-in, ski-out property...

Village life at le Chinaillon.

Down at le Grand Bornand, there is no village if there ain't a church in the middle of it.

Back at Annecy lake, view of Castogne (mountain to the left) and Chateau Saint Bernard (bottom right).

Chateau Saint Bernard has been in the same family for the last 900 years, now that's stability!

Col de Balme (Aravis)

Today I went out to La Clusaz a resort in the Aravis range (about half an hour away from Annecy). They had their opening today so I was able to work out on avalanche controlled terrain. La Clusaz data are as follows:

Number of lifts:                  129

Tot. run length:                   200 miles

Highest lift:                         8,121 feet

My favorite part of La Clusaz is the col de Balme area. It’s a bit like Snowbird with an extra 1,000 of drop and minus a lot of grooming. From the top at col de Balme you get a nice consistently steep run in ungroomed terrain (5% or so is groomed but you never have to ski on it) dropping 4,000 feet. Not too shabby…

Here are the pictures of the day some are captioned some not (click to enlarge):

Sunrise over the Aravis.

While some are in heaven, some are just a tad bit below...

View of the next resort over: Le Grand Bornand.

Peaks all around.

Testimony to the not too intrusive grooming at La Clusaz.

View of the Mont Blanc from Col de Balme.

Pointe Percée, the highest peak in the Aravis at 9,021.

Mont Blanc panorama.

La Tournette in the clouds.

The pass in the middle is the Col de Balme.

First ski of the 2012/2013 season!

Yesterday was a very special day and there's only one of those a year: The first ski of the season! I went out with a friend to Tignes, a resort which is linked to Val d’Isere, and comes with some nice stats:

Number of lifts:       97

Tot. length of runs: 188 miles

Highest lift:              11,366 feet

Tignes’ most compelling feature may be its glacier which allows for year round skiing (except for a few “maintenance weeks” annual closure). The limitation is that this is only available on the top 1,000 feet or so of the mountain and skiing last year’s black ice provides very limited fun. Last week-end we had a fairly good storm and I was hoping that given the elevation at la Grande Motte (11,996 feet ) there would be some fun to be had with that snow one week later. Hopefully there would be enough snow , as far down as possible,  to Val Claret (6,993 feet). The objective was the top of the tram station at La Grande Motte (11,337 feet ).  We were expecting to have to carry at Val Claret and then get the skis on higher up.

We left at 6:30 am as Tignes is 2 hours away from Annecy and got there just a bit past 8:30 and started skinning at 9:00 am. To our surprise not only could we skin straight off the parking lot at Val Claret but the lifts were open! There was more and better snow than anticipated and we were in for a 4,300+ “pre-season” skin… and SKI! Once we made it to our destination at the tram station we found a fair amount of powder on an ungroomed glacier just under the summit rock: Mega bonus time! You just gotta watch out for those pesky crevasses and seracs which just makes the whole thing so much more interesting. This was just a much better ski than expected and an all around very legit ski day.

Here are the pictures (click to enlarge):

To the left La Grande Motte at 3,656m (11,996) and to the right La Grande Casse at 3,852m
(12,639). On the far right of La Grande Casse you can see a shoulder. There is a really cool
north  face descent that starts there at 3,685m (12,091) and goes down to the Col de la Grande
Casse at  3,093m (10,148) for a total sustained  2,000 feet descent with almost 1,500 of it 40-45°
steep. The only real drawback on that objective is a 7,000'+ ski/climb up.

The rock at la Grande Motte with a ton of snow and some hefty seracs to the left.

A close-up on one of those pesky crevasses. Fun for the whole family but:
Falling est verboten...

View of the Tignes back country past the Champagny lift on the
Grande Motte glacier.

Here is my partner Regis Perret enjoying biting cold on the glacier with
Dome de Pramecou in the background.