 Poster: A snowHead
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The last week has been warm well I suppose that’s an understatement: it’s been bloody hot, fortunately the snowpack is so deep that it has stood up to the heat well and the sun has softened the snow nicely during the day. On Tuesday Scottish Skier and me had a play on the Echine des Chevres run on the Lauze glacier, we’ve been meaning to do this for a while but each of the last snowfalls have been accompanied by high winds that have packed the snow hard and formed sastrugi. However, with the strong sun the snow had softened up even at that altitude.
Me on the glacier.
On Wednesday we decided to check out how the snow was holding up at La Grave, starting off with a warm up on the col du lac. After that run we decided to try Voute again, obviously it was much more tracked than before and the snow bank at the bottom of the abseil was really hardpacked. Once into the couloir proper though it was still nice and soft.
Me in Voute.
“We’re Hardcore Us!” The last chance to turn back for La Grave on the approach. The sign reads: “Behind this point, Cliffs!!! If you don’t have any rope and harnesses... To go back to La Grave, climb back up to the rope line.”
Thursday was another chance to hit a new line for us by now we’d got a handle on what the heat was doing to the snow and this was the last day before it was set to cool down significantly. Below the Signal chair is an alluring bowl, however invisible from above, below this is a series of cliffs and couloirs ending in large icefalls. We knew there were two routes down this slope, the Muratouse on skiers right and Mines on the left but there was only one way down the final part: of the three streams that flow through the final cliff bands two terminate in 100m icefalls. The other was narrow but skiable although it had been affected by avalanches and rockfall.
I’d like to quickly point out we didn’t head down here blind or following tracks. Every time we’ve driven to La Grave we’d passed by this slope and on a couple of occasions taken a series of photos (actually we’ve done this for most of the lines down the valley) we then spent a number of nights studying the pictures and relating them to the map, what we could see from above/below and even Google Earth!! Eventually we were confident we could do it, rather than traverse in from La Grave we planned on hitting it from the Signal chair here.
Photo of the route taken from the excellent skierslodge website (http://www.skierslodge.com/legend/#) Mines takes the line on the right the bottom of the signal chair is just visible (black arrow), we descended from right of this when looking at the picture.
Although there were a few tracks down the line this is probably skied less than any of the other things we’d done and despite the heat the snow was still almost powdery in the shade and nicely softened in the sun.
Scottish Skier at the start of the bowl
The initial slope and the first gullies and bowls all had the same glorious snow and although on a route with such a large vertical descent the snow conditions are going to change we were surprised at how much really good snow there was.
Scottish Skier in yet another large bowl of fantastic snow
Me in the first bowl and then leaving it via the first gully
Into the next bowl
And down through it, this gives a sense of scale of the place.
So far we’d hit each gully and bowl that we’d intended but we weren’t going to get ahead of ourselves as we knew the technical crux was ahead of us and if we got the line slightly wrong from this point on we would be in serious trouble. It was about this point that we got a good buzzing from a helicopter, we can’t be certain why but it’s possible we were seen leaving the ski area and it’s not unheard of for people to head down this way without knowing what they’re getting into (ask Lizzard about one of her former guests) anyway they headed off so we carried on.
The route ahead looking down to the Romansche and the road (my car was somewhere down there)
As the above photo indicates falling here is right out so we made our way down carefully.
Now we were in the steep and narrow exit couloir and the snow was getting worse. To add to the snow the couloir had been scoured by avalanches and even some rockfall from one of the walls.
The choke point of the exit couloir, note the exposed rocks: a mixture of the couloir bed having been uncovered by slides from above and rocks that had fallen from the far wall. This was not a place to hang about in but care was needed as a fall could be terminally easy.
Once out the couloir we found ourselves on the massive cones of avalanche debris, fortunately this had softened slightly in the heat at the low altitude. From there was a choice of ride down the stream bed with a series of small drop offs and big rocks to avoid or through the trees ducking branches and avoiding rocks again. Combat skiing at its best. At this point the helicopter came back possibly to laugh at us fighting our way to the river.
In the stream bed: by now it there was no point riding as it was up and down all the way. In the background you can see two of the streams heading out of the area we skied which are ice falls over the final cliff band (centre and left hand side of the photo) the line out is hidden by the cliff but is above my head.
Of course this wasn’t the end we still had the river to cross and the heat had made it quite deep and fast flowing so we headed for the bridge about 500m upstream. This was pretty tiring work in snow that varied from hard and shallow to soft and knee deep. And we were both pretty surprised to discover we had to do a bit of caving to reach the bridge:
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Arno, will still be here, our passes won'r be valid at LG that weekend though (not valid weekends and public holidays  ) btw have you done the Rama?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Swirly, no but would be up for giving it a try conditions permitting
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Arno, cool it's probably the one thing left within my ability! Just a bit unsure as to the entrance to the bowl above the couloir so looking for beta.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Swirly, looks like Scottishskier is enjoying pair of ski's number 6, about time he got some big skis  Not surprised that you got buzzed by the heli down there, I remember when we were checking out that route from the top of the signal chair and we ducked the rope, the lifty was over to see what we were doing.
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Superb report & photos 
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Swirly. The first photo is nowhere near the glacier! That one is on the Ratchas looking towards Pied Moutet
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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scottishskier, is this more evidence of Swirly's legendary sense of direction 
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scottishskier, oh yeah, I did wonder why I'd traversed so far!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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OTOH we had 80cm of fresh to play in 
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You know it makes sense.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Nice!! I think you may be missing a photo as I can't see Gorilla....
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Poster: A snowHead
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looks like some nice spring conditions there
hadn't realised Piefroid had made it into a guidebook - must be the new edition. lots of nice skiing accessible from that traverse
and... this needs a bump because it's got a bazillion times more stoke than most season update threads 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Great TR... this is too good to be buried here...
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Swirly, don't know what made me, as an incompetent skier, look belatedly at this thread. Absolutely brilliant account and stunning photos. Thank you!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I like how it develops from the protagonists poking around off the side of pistes at the beginning of the season to riding it to the road at La Grave with rope work and everything! Great stuff
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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But how're they gonna keep him down on the farm, now that he's seen L.A.?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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gorilla, you can link that with the Col du Couard and get all the way back to la Villette at 1200m - that's a vertical drop of 2100m almost all off piste!
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Arno, that sounds like one for next season. If no one ups sticks to the snow for the season again we're considering a week or so in AdH. The place is full of unfinished business.
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Arno, doubt there's any snow down there now. Isn't the Col really flat? looks it on the map.
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You know it makes sense.
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Swirly, you need to go hard skier's right at the bottom of l'Impo and traverse round to a lake (covered in snow/ice) then climb up a few metres. You then ski down a not very steep slope into a big bowl under the face of l'Etendard. This is a nice ski and brings you out onto a flatish area (which should have enough angle to keep a boarder moving) which takes you down to the col. The couloir under the col is probably about blue/red run steepness most of the way down - a little steeper at the top
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Swirly, that shot of The Haggis (below the one of you reaching the top) is a cracker
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Poster: A snowHead
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one word ........... Awesome !
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Swirly, gorilla, what a great way to finish off the season
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| gorilla wrote: |
Just for a sense of scale.
The view down the line. The entry is at the top right of the pic, our tracks run across the left.
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Do you remember where you took this from - can't work out where would have a view like that
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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top thread. love the stoke and the photos.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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easiski, I guess you figured the bbq was a non-starter on Sunday with all that rain, we spent a fair few hours cleaning our apartment instead! Thanks for the lessons and hopefully I'll see you again next year when this minor injury sorts itself out.
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Arno, I think I took that from the bottom of the cable car with the long lens. I can't really remember, though. I don't recall pausing for photos on the lower section of the line as it was warming up quite quickly.
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I've been back in the UK for 2 days now, god that's depressing!
Before trying to wrap this thread up I'd like to say a huge thanks to everyone who has helped out with advice both before and during the time in L2A, especially to easiski & Lizzard also Dougie from the Yeti for all the cheap beer and constant requests for bad music. Also everyone I've ridden with through the season: too many to mention.
In the end the season kind of died out, after the day on L'impossible it went cold again and stayed cold till the lifts shut meaning the snow was generally too hard to be much fun. We didn't even go to the top on the last day. It snowed after and we planned for a final trip over to La Grave but had to clean out the apartment which took a bit longer than expected. The drive back was pretty uneventful, we left at half 8 and were booked on the 2200 ferry, a pretty knackering drive back got us to Dunkerque for 10 to 6 and they put us on the 8 o'clock boat but there was a bit of space left on the 1800 sailing so we got bunked up and coasted on running on fumes (petrol is loads cheaper in the UK atm), all in the trip was just under 13 hrs door to door.
I'd like to finish off with a few stats that we collected over the 5 months away:
Most Lifts Taken Without A Run: 5
Powder Days: 22
Miles Driven: 2964.7
Tours: 2
Rocks Hit: Lots...
Core Shots: 19
Most People Staying in the Appartment at Once:5
Deepest Powder: 80cm
Karaoke Attempts: 6
Cheapest Night Out: 8€ for 9 pints and 2 Jagerbombs.
Triple Pepper Burgers Obtained: 4
Money Spent on Guides: £0
And I'll definitely do it again just as soon as I get the money together!
Thanks for reading.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Thanks for the updates but on your stats ....you missed out some .... heres a couple that spring to mind:-
- Most chat up lines attempted in one night :
- Total chalet girls deflowered :
- Piste side projectiles due to aforementioned Jagerbombs :
- Days spent wearing a helmet
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| DebbiDoesSnow wrote: |
- Total chalet girls deflowered : |
I'm not sure that's possible...
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| - Piste side projectiles due to aforementioned Jagerbombs : |
0 I wasn't sick at all...
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| - Days spent wearing a helmet |
Well I bought one in Jan so 4 or 5 maybe... I got it for the Derby de la Meije as it's in the rules then didn't enter in time. Wore it in the trees and couloirs a couple of times.
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FAQ
l'Impo in powder is much fun (you should have traversed hard skier's right at the earliest opportunity though 
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What a great thread though, and fantastic photos. Why do so many go to the Haute Savoie and completely ignore l'Oisans??? I will never understand it. 
