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.

Powder day at Le Grand Bornand

As we actually already are facing some avalanche risk (yes, in some parts we already have a multi-layer snow-pack) I didn't feel like going for my training hike alone at Tervelles with its well filled slopes at 45 degrees plus. So for more low angle I went to the ski slopes of Le Grand Bornand which is one of the local ski resorts. This is also the resort at which Ski Club Annecy-Semnoz (Max's ski club) has its permanent training room. I had a fair amount of snow there too (between one and 2.5 feet). As you can see we are getting that distinct winter feel now as some parts of our area are in full winter mode already. Here are the pictures (click to enlarge):

These guys are ready for one long cold winter...

Nope, none of this is man-made

You can almost see the mountain through the clouds.

Powder day anyone?

A hard day’s work at the Plan de l’Aiguille

Went on a 4000 some feet training round from the Grepon parking lot up to the Plan de l’Aiguille as a reasonably fast paced non-stop-till-the-top kinda workout. I encountered a fair amount of snow with a cover  of up to two feet in some spots. Once up there I just took the Aiguille du Midi tram down. Here are the pictures:

View of the Aravis range from Chamonix. This is
about halfway between Annecy and Chamonix.

View of a windy Dome du Gouter from the Grepon trail. This is on the
"normal" way up to the Mont Blanc  when you're skinning up.

Plan de l'Aiguille with a fair amount of snow...

...and getting closer.

And the inevitable picture of Skadi.

Did you guys know that Skadi is the winter and snow goddess? This is what Wikipedia says: In Norse mythology, Skaði (sometimes anglicized as Skadi, Skade, or Skathi) is a jötunn [which means giant: Editors note] and goddess associated with bowhunting, skiing, winter, and mountains. Below is a Norwegian depiction of Skadi early last century.

First skinning session of the season

We had a reasonably good storm (at least for October) starting yesterday and through the night. So this morning I went to Les Grands Montets (my French substitute for Alta in the pre-season, see 09 post) with my my skins and the gear for a real training session. When I say real, that is as opposed to dry land which obviously is merely fake training. The snow cover varied quite widely from 1/2 an inch to 1.5 feet and more. Anyways, although the conditions were heinous:

40 mph winds
Under very dark clouds
-13 Celsius
Rocks through the snow left and right

...this will still count as the first skinning for the season as I was able to skin uninterrupted from the lift base at 4,000 some feet (1,252 m) all the way to Lognan at about 6,500 feet (1,972 m ). Not the most brutal elevation gain but as bad as things were down at the base it was outright ridiculous at the lift mid-station so I attached the skis to my back pack and started the walk down. Here are the pictures (click to enlarge).

On the south side of the massif at Aiguilles Rouges, the
blue skies would peek through  every now and then.

Another view of Aiguilles Rouges.

Back to my side of things: Crossing one of mant streems.

Skadi always enjoying it whatever the conditions are...

All this snow is less than 24 hours old...

What a difference a couple of weeks can make (click here to see this same waterfall)