Tuesday 30 October 2012

Season Opening – Skiing The Glacier Ronde In October

The weeks after the Patagonia adventure has been filled with lots of rest, work, family time and me and my girl friend moving in to a new apartment just outside of Chamonix. Anyone who has been into the moving-in business know how much time and energy that takes.


I have totally ignored the warm rainstorms that has plastered the mountains with perfect steep skiing conditions and instead rested my mind from most things related to skiing.

Our tracks on Glacier Ronde yesterday the 29th of October!

But after getting my year pass for the lifts in Chamonix (and Courmayeur), the winter excitement took hold of me and I felt like I had to ski something. From where I live I have a first class view of on of the Chamonix classical semi-steep skis descents: The Glacier Ronde, and with a weekend full of rain and snowfall I couldn’t stay away from the thought of go skiing one of my favorite ski runs in the world.

Autumn can serve up with some of the best steep skiing conditions of the year, but it’s usually hard work to maneuver the lower elevations on the way back, where the snow cover normally is really poor.

As a proof of the possible good autumn conditions, a few years back, I managed to ski the Mallory (direct) of the north face of Aiguille du Midi in the best conditions I have ever seen up there. The thought of a mini repeat of that feeling was hard to stay away from. 

Early Monday morning I met up with Swedish (half Danish, grew up in Spain) friend Niclas Hansen to take the first bin of the day at Aiguille du Midi. Only four other skiers accompanied us up.

At the top we skied down the semi icy ridge, then a very placky south face before we traversed around to the west side of the mountain. We used the rope to check the conditions on the traverse in to the big face where we found really good skiing conditions.

The first part of the run had about 20 cm of light powder snow, then the mid sections was pretty hard and the last third had about 30 cm of fresh snow on it.

We did one rappel to get in to the exit couloir and from here and onwards the snow conditions where competing with some of the better days in the winter season. Great skiing, great weather and great company – I were really happy I was out skiing in October.

At the end of the couloir we did one steep rappel to get down to the glacier and then we did about 2,5 hours of full on glacier warfare zig-zagging, jumping, climbing, traversing and rappelling before we reached the block terrain and “firm” ground.

From here on we had a long walk down to the old lift station and then the tunnel where Niclas Ferin (Thank you Niclas!) picked us up!

In winter it’s easy to ski the Ronde five times and be back in town for après ski, but now it’s still October and it feels great just to be out skiing again on Aiguille du Midi and totally escapistic to get a 1500 vertical meter powder run!

Season Opening – Skiing The Glacier Ronde
New for this adventure was that I was updating from the mountain, on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Follow our adventures live online or keep reading on this blog (a new page will come soon) during the upcoming season!

The weeks after the Patagonia adventure has been filled with lots of rest, work, family time and me and my girl friend has moved in to a new apartment just outside of Chamonix. Anyone who has been into the moving in business know how much time that takes.

I have totally ignored the warm rainstorms that has plastered the mountains with perfect steep skiing conditions and instead rested my mind from most things related to skiing.

But getting my year pass for the lifts in Chamonix (and Courmayeur) the winter excitement took hold of me and I felt like I had to ski something. From where I live I have a first class view of on of the Chamonix classical semi-steep skis: The Glacier Ronde, and with a weekend full of rain and snowfall I couldn’t stay away from the thought of going skiing on of my favorite ski runs in the world.

Autumn can serve up with some of the best steep skiing conditions of the year, but it’s usually hard work to maneuver the lower elevations on the way back, where the snow cover normally is really poor.

As a proof of the possible good autumn conditions I managed to ski the Mallory (direct) of the north face of Aiguille du Midi in the best conditions I have ever seen up there.

Early Monday morning I met up with Swedish (half Danish, grew up in Spain) friend Niclas Hansen to take the first bin of the day at Aiguille du Midi. Only four other skiers accompanied us up.

At the top we skied down the semi icy ridge, then a very placky south face before we traversed around to the west side of the mountain. We used the rope to check the conditions on the traverse in to the big face where we found really good skiing conditions.

The first part of the run had about 20 cm of light powder snow, then the mid sections was pretty hard and the last third had about 30 cm of fresh snow on it.

We did one rappel to get in to the exit couloir and from here and onwards the snow conditions where competing with some of the better days in the winter season. Great skiing, great weather and great company – I were really happy I was out skiing in October.

At the end of the couloir we did one steep rappel to get down to the glacier and then we did about 2,5 hours of full on glacier warfare zig-zagging, jumping, climbing, traversing and rappelling before we reached the block terrain and “firm” ground.

From here on we had a long walk down to the old lift station and the tunnel where Niclas Ferin (Thank you Niclas!) picked us up!

In winter it’s easy to ski the Ronde five times and be back in town for après ski, but now it’s still October and it feels great just to be out skiing again on Aiguille du Midi and totally escapistic to get a 1500 vertical meter powder run! Thanks Niclas for an awesome day out! 

New for this adventure was that I was updating from the mountain, on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Follow our adventures live online or keep reading on this blog (a new page will come soon) during the upcoming season!
 
I love the feeling of expectation going up Midi in the morning

Sami, Nate and Niclas in the bin

Sami opening the ridge up! 

Niclas skiing down on the south side of the top ridge

Niclas at the top of Glacier Ronde

Looks inviting, doesn't it? 

Niclas skiing autumn powder

Niclas at the harder, but still good, mid section

 Me stoked to be out in the mountains

Myself skiing the lower section of the face in knee deep powder (Photo: Niclas Hansen)

Niclas entering the exit couloir

On rap to get in

A happy Niclas in the Exit couloir

Myself skiing in the exit couloir, knee deep pow! 

Advanced glacier travel

It got more advanced the further we went

But at least we were through

We got awarded with a beautiful sunset on our walk back to town. Great ending to a great day! 

Monday 22 October 2012

It's Finally Here - The Third And Last Lyngen Episode!


It’s finally here – The last and final third episode from our magical trip to the Lyngen Alps in Norway last April. After lots of hard work we finally got to charge some of the most beautiful lines in our lives! 

Thanks to the Salén brothers for all the hard work and remember to check out the spiritual (in an non hippie way) skiing center - The Magic Mountain Lodge if you pass by this Mecca of ski touring and need a place to stay. 

Also remember to check out more of Bjarne Salén's kick ass movies at endlessflow.posterous.com

Tuesday 16 October 2012

Patagonia – The Second Half Of The Trip Plus The Patagonian Photo Album


After the ski of the Whillans Ramp and the Cerro Grande mission the weather went bad to half bad and we weren’t really invited to do out for any more big missions. We had done our main objective and we had been getting the feel for the Torre Valley as well as the Fitz Roy Massif and even though we had some smaller objectives left on our radar, we felt like we wanted to focus on smaller adventures close(er) to the roads as well as the kick ass bouldering around El Chaltén.

Swimming up an awesome couloir in the Cordon Del Bosque mountains together with Bjarne and team Austria

In between some bad weather cycles we got some dry days for bouldering with our local friends who were showing us some of the best blocks in the area followed by detailed beta for every move. We had a great time bouldering, and it’s great to keep at least a bit of physical shape when on a ski adventure playing the weather game.

Then we had the great luck of running in to Mathias, Chris and Marvin from Austria who were in El Chaltén on a combined Ski and Climbing trip and who happened to have a car. They invited us to join them, and together we explored the mountains north of town including a beautiful couloir in the Cordon del Bosque Mountains and normal ski touring on Cerro Vespignani and Loma del Diablo.

Now I’m back in Chamonix looking back on another beautiful adventure with Bjarne. I’m really impressed and intimidated in a positive way by the Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre mountains, their size, their steepness, the long approaches and how wild they are. It’s not an easy place to go skiing steep descents, and there are not many high quality lines, but the ones that are there will keep future generations of steep skiers busy for some time. I’m also very impressed by our new local friends who invited us to their homes, pointed us in the right directions, gave us their time and knowledge, showed us around town and the boulder sites and in short were just awesome individuals living in an amazing place enjoying life (no one mentioned, no one forgotten – but you know who you are).

Part of the plan with the trip was to gather material for two new episodes that, if everything goes as planned, will be released in December. Till then, stay posted on what I do here on this blog or on my Twitter or Facebook.

Also keep an eye out for Bjarne Salén’s great episodes at his Video Blog or Facebook.

Now it’s time for me to prepare for another winter of skiing, climbing, guide courses and writing around Chamonix and elsewhere. 

Below is a selected photo album from our Patagonia trip. 

Bjarne in Madrid

El Calafate

Without our ski bags. We got them after three days. 

Poincenot and Fitz Roy in the sun rise on our first day

I quickly had to give up vegetarianism with only two restaurants open in town... 

Bjarne on our first recognacance trip

The down side of ski expeditions


The tyrolian traverse gives access to the Torre Valley

Seeing mighty Cerro Torre 


A poster in the climbing gym. Love it! 

The El Chaltén boulder room 

On our way to Laguna los Tres, and the Ramp mission


Seeing Poincenot and the ramp from up close

Bjarne skiing above camp on our first day


Sunrise on our way up to the ramp


Bjarne giving thumbs up before i start to climb. He just belayed me over the bergschrunds... 

Skiing high up on the Whillans Ramp

The view from the ramp

Poincenot, the ramp and Fitz Roy from when we walked out the following day


Patagonian wildlife 

A dream come true, to see a Condor 

Happy boys in our Cave 

Walking in to Cerro Grande

Bjarne in the early morning

The north couloir on Cerro Grande, a no go

Skiing high up on the east ridge of Cerro Grande 

Bjarne skiing on our way down from the plateau

Bjarne Salén in action

Our cosy Hilleberg house 

Myself at camp

Myself skiing a steepish couloir on Loma del Diablo

Bjarne, Simon and myself at Loma del Diablo

Bjarne blouldering

Natcho

Some of the great people we met in town



Macho and Simon playing

Me at local radio... Getting interviewed in Spanish.. 

Das Auto del Team Austria

Our mission

Bjarne, Chris, Mathias and Marvin at Lago del Desierto

A cold river crossing

The team

Marvin in the couloir


Rapping to get down the gully at the end of the day

Ski touring on Vespignani


The filmer can also deliver! 


One of our last boulder sessions before we went home....