 Poster: A snowHead
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I think most of the photos are of the variant routes, but it is a spectacular way to experience far off-piste skiing, without much difficulty on the classic route (and nearly piste conditions when it is a few days since last snow.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I did the VB just over 10 years ago during the last week of the season, so it must have been early April. We did the 'Vrai' variant which, contrary to what ifyouski say, is not the normal route (I told them this over a year ago but they still get it wrong). It was a beautiful day and the snow was good and deep. Fantastic day.
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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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Well, after much discussion in November, I can report that we (my 14 year old daughter and me) did the classic route on Sunday.
We hired a guide thorugh Evolution II, but had some difficulty in getting this organised. I had left it till the Thursday before ringing around all the many guiding organisations in and around Chamonix, because I wasn't sure on which day we would be going earlier than that. It was suggested to me during this exercise that generally the end of the week is easier to join a group (current rates are about E62 per person in a mixed group). In the end we hired the guide for ourselves for the day, which cost quite a bit more.
The day was beautiful, with clear blue skies. I must admit that the steep walk down the ridge was a bit of an anticlimax after all that I had read beforehand. The rope fencing is so secure that you don't feel at all endangered. In fact, the worst walk was the one at the end, up the stairs to get the cablecar to the train station - that was killing in the heat, but I don't remember anyone mentioning that beforehand.
The views were fantastic all the way down and the guide was excellent. Interestingly he commented that because the upper part of the glacier is moving at 600m per year, the route is never the same from year to year. He thought that this year was quite difficult, whereas a couple of years ago, it would have to have been considered little more than a blue all the way. I must admit that there were a couple of sections where the skiing was quite technical, fortunately there had been some recent snow, so the conditions were eased a little on what it could have been.
This year they were able to ski all the way back to Chamonix for about 6 weeks, whereas last year it was only possible for about 10 days. Our guide reckoned that with current conditions, unless there is more snow soon, it will only be possible to ski to the station for another 10 days or so.
All in all a great experience and I thorougly enjoyed it. Thanks to all for your comments and advice back in November, it was all very helpful.
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