Backyard snowboarding
Firstly Happy Christmas to all of our friends and guests past and present, it’s been a great start to the season and the snow has been epic.
With snow right down to village level and to Mountain Spaces HQ we decided it was time to make the most of what’s on out doorstep, quite literally. With a deep enough base down over the hills in the village we made our way to the top on snow shoes checking out the snow depth and some lines on the way.
Just outside our front door, snow-shoed up and ready to roll
Not quite a husky but he still follows us up the hill!
Mountain Spaces HQ
At the top
Picking out lines on the way down
It doesn’t always have to be on the lifts and getting out away from the crowds can be amazing, only 1 run but well worth the effort.
Snow in the Valley
We’ve had a couple of dustings of snow already up in Avoriaz but the snow line has well and truly dropped in to the valley with more forecast down to Morzine village level tomorrow night!
This was the view this morning out of Mountain Spaces HQ, it won’t be too long before we start thinking about hiking the slopes above Avoriaz
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Col Du Grand St Bernard
With the lifts about to shut for the season we headed over to the Col du Grand St Bernard between Switzerland and Italy for a night in the refuge.
The Col is one of, if not the oldest route through the Western Alps with evidence of use as far back as the Bronze ages. The pass is appears in history around 390BC and is well documented by the time of Julius Ceaser around 60BC. Napolean also famously crossed the pass in May 1800 with 6000 men and there’s a staue at the top to commemorate the feat.
More recently the Hospice and the Col has become synonymous with the image of the St Bernard dog with the barrel of brandy round it’s neck. The legend is that the brandy was to rejuvenate victims of avalanches or hypothermia until they could be rescued by the monks who acted as mountain guides.
The barrel of brandy appears to be part truth part legend but the dogs were certainly used by the monks, to clear paths in the snow following the scent of a trail buried in up to a metre of fresh snow and sniffing then digging out victims of avalanches, one dog is reported to have saved 40 lives, on finding the 41st victim the dog was stabbed by the victim who thought he was being attacked by a bear. The victim escaped from the snow and followed the blood trail left by the St Bernard back to the safety of the hospice where the dog later died. Sucks for the dog!
Not intending to die in an avalanche or stab anything a group of 3 of us set of early to hike up to the hospice, drop off some kit then head over to the Italian side to find some nice spring snow, leaving the rest of the group to come up later and meet us for dinner.
Parked at the bottom of the Col, in the summer there’s a road up to the top, this is as far as you can get until about July. Left about 9.30am for the hike up
Heading up with Craig and James, split boards have got to be the way forward, carrying boards is hard work!
Looking up the last part of the route to the Hospice, is a bit steeper than the first part as it doesn’t follow the road. About an hour into the climb by now and starting to get pretty hot.
The top, well the hospice/refuge anyway. 2500m above sea level and a well earned 15min break to drop off some overnight kit we didn’t need to carry any further. Whole climb took about 1hr30. Jamie blitzed it later in the day in 1hr12 but we can’t all be whippets.
Looking back from the Italian side at the statue of Napolean, the frozen lake and the Hospice in the distance, the mountains aren’t wonky in Italy it was just really hot and couldn’t see anything on the camera display as it was so bright.
We’re going up where? There?
Once we dropped down into the valley on the Italian side we traversed round to a non-south facing slope as there were signs of recent avalanche activity on the sun facing slopes. We picked a route up the North facing side of a gully and set off with boards on backs and Craig skinning up, and yes it is as steep as it looks.
It was now seriously hot as my sunburned forehead will testify to! The climb took us another hour or so with the going getting harder near the top as the sun degraded the snow even more until snow shoes were sinking in on the deeper snow on the top ridges. We stopped just short of the top (10m or so) as the snow was almost impossible to walk up by now and we’d run out of time to traverse round any further.
At the top and in serious need of a sit down!
Craig and James set off first in the slush, having seen how soft it was I opted for one mahoosive toe side turn down the main face really letting go as the snow was slowing things down a bit. The climb back up to the hospice nearly killed me!
The best looking refuge ever! Complete with comfy beds, electricity, hot water and an awesome room.
The others including Kate, joined us later in the evening as we got to sit down to veggie soup, pasta and tuna salad and apple compote, none of us lasted very long before hitting the hay.
The next day was pretty cloudy higher up and spoilt the plan to re-climb the same route as the day before and then drop off the back, back down to the car park. Still didn’t spoil a good group photo.
Heading back down after a fantastic couple of days. One of the best places I have ever visited without a doubt.
Pointe De La Vorlaz
Pepsi Max run from the top of the Pointe De La Vorlaz 2346m. Superb off-piste run but the climb is not for the faint hearted!
Started out with a couple of runs through the trees of to the side of the Stash before heading up Le Choucas lift and playing around on the SnowCross for a bit to warm up.
The SnowCross is basically an area that is not pisted but is patrolled, monitored and avalanche controlled, basically off piste but with more of the risks removed.
All limbered up and ready to go we headed to the top of the Cubore ‘up and over’ lift to start the traverse round the South face of the peak from about 2200m.
At the end of the traverse on the South side getting packed away ready for the climb up the face. Was pretty bare as the wind had removed a lot of the snow leaving ice and really hard clumps of grass, excellent climbing conditions!
Once you come off the face at a small col by the satellite station you turn left up onto the ridge for the last couple of hundred metres.
About halfway it gets pretty narrow and exposed although the footholds are better than on the face.
The last section of the ridge leading up to the summit.
The top! And no it’s not trick photography and I’m not a midget, Craig is huge. The descent is all down a North face back towards the Lindaret bowl. No pictures as I was far to busy enjoying all the fantastic snow.
New Year’s Eve Snow
Headed up behind Avoriaz to the Snow Cross area for a quick session on New Year’s eve with some of the guysfrom All Mountain Rental.
Really good snow and still some bits of powder that only had a couple of tracks if any, not bad for such a busy week. The temperature has really dropped again after a slightly warmer week in the village and as I’m writing this it’s snowing hard down to at least 600m.
Overlooking Avoriaz
Tracked out on this side but still fresh of to the right
Setting up for jumps of a nice windlip
Some of the fresh stuff!!
Avoriaz Hike
Drove up to Avoriaz today to hike to the top before the lifts open next weekend! Harder to get to the top but then fresh tracks on the way down as there weren’t many people around.
Some of the lower piste was bashed making it a bit easier but the top was all fresh snow, fortunately we had borrowed some snow shoes from All Mountain Rental to make the going a bit easier while the skiers skinned up.
On the way down from Avoriaz
Looking back to Les Haute Fortes
From Avoriaz centre
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Ski and Backcountry Hire in Morzine
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Catered and Self Catered Mountain Holidays
I got up this morning….
….and the world looked like this! It would appear we had some snow last night, i would love to write more but I’m going snowboarding
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The French Alps
Snow Shoeing!
Before the lifts are open for the winter season proper there’s still loads to do. This is us with friends and family snowshoe trekking on the col de L’Encrenaz overlooking the Roc D’Enfer. You can see how much snow there is already, some of the lifts are already open at teh weekend and parts of Avoriaz are already bashed and ready to run.
Coming down was fun in the powder, kind of a cross between floating and running. The snowshoes are really easy to use, they look like they could be a complete nightmare but once you get into a strid and adjust to them it really is as easy as walking normally. Making your own tracks helps a lot as there aren’t patches of compacted snow to make the shoe sit unevenly.
Our guide very kindly brought vin chaud along with him, some had more than others!
Snap
Motley crew, me and Kate are sitting down becasue we can’t figure out how to stand back up whilst wearing the snow shoes!
Later on that evening, more powder and the lifts only open at the weekend!! Must buy split snowboard and skins for next season!
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The French Alps
Pre Season in Avoriaz
There’s already a fair bit of snow up in Avoriaz, here’s a couple of shots I got out on a walk today, lets hope the snow keeps coming!
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Catered, Self Catered and Adventure Holidays
The French Alps
