Monday 31 January 2011

Aiguille Mesure couloir south-west – a beautiful day, great ski mountaineering, some good skiing and a possible first decent…

Up Brevent, pist skiing over to Flegere, a traverse over to Lac Blanc, then up the alternative finish on Col Beugeant, down on the other side in boot deep pow for a few turns, traverse over to Col de Encrenaz, keep on going and up right in the next couloir, when the snow ends traverse left (grade 3 rock climbing – loose rock) to another couloir, climb this one to the top, traverse over a steep rocky face to the south west couloir on Mesure, say hello to a family of Ibexes, click in to your skis, ski some great corn down to a big cliff band, down climb this for a few meters, keep on skiing great snow to a second cliff band, try to set up a rappel, finally succeed with this and end up in another couloir, ski this one down to avalanche cone heaven, survive down to the little track at the bottom of the valley, follow this one all the way down to Buet, miss the train by 2 min, get a hitch on your first try and get back to Cham in time for dinner.

That’s my day today. Felix saw this line earlier this week doing Mt Oreb and after some talking and planning it seemed to be a line treating with a great ski mountaineering adventure. Up and down, skins, skis and crampons on and off, off and on, line checking, rock climbing, a bit of nerve, a meeting with a family of ibexes, great skiing and some problem solving. And then, we haven’t seen any trace of skiing activity on this face (or in any guide book) giving the day an extra nerve that post information cant take away from us. Again a great day on the mountain… 



 Approach

 First couloir of the day

 Skiing some good snow with our coming ascent in the background

Felix Hentz finds great snow

End of the climbing

Close to the top 

 Our friends

 Just about to do the first turns


 Excellent spring skiing

Couloir skiing

Our tracks from the approach

 Going down the last rock band

Sunset skiing

The Face

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