Alan Watts on Insecure society and hermits...

Is Alan speaking about us? - Skiiers, climbers, surfers, bikers and all of us choosing not to play the big game…

Friends in the Dolomites - continuation...

While we are at it, I have to post a link from another party of friends in their search for couloirs at the same time at the same place... Xavier de le Rue and Giulia Monego are riding the steeps and Tero Repo and Guido Perrini behind the cameras.

Keep yourself posted on these guys:
Xavier de le Rue - www.timelinemissions.com
Giulia Monego - www.giuliamonego.com
Tero Repo - www.terorepo.com
Guido Perrini - www.guidoperrini.com

The Italian Job with Xavier de le Rue - TimeLine S01E06 from TimeLine on Vimeo.

Friends riding Dolomiti couloirs...

Friends Felix Hentz, Luca Pandolfi and John Minouge went over to the Dolomites the other week and enjoyed som good food and cool couloirs. Here is a edit by Felix Hentz from the Trip!

Check out Felix on www.felixhentz.com and Luca on www.lucapandolfi.com

Dolomiti from Felix Hentz on Vimeo.

Courmayeur – Magic powder skiing

Today I went over to Courmayeur with Felix Hentz with the objective to enjoy some good skiing. With the foehn blowing hard in Chamonix it usually means good skiing in Italy so we had expectations for some good turns. But coming up into the ski area most of the skiing was dust on crust and most that had been good had been skied out the day before.

However, the top lift had not been open the day before and it opened early giving us access to the best skiing Courmayeur has to offer with almost no one hunting the first tracks. We aimed to ski northern aspects and got a few long runs that would fit in to the category; “skiing does not get much better than this”.

Yet, like most powder days this season, it got really warm and the best skiing got dangerous so we ended the day early and enjoyed Italian coffee, cream croissants, tiramisus and sweet Canelones.

Thanks Felix for another kick ass ski day!

Felix Hentz with the Aosta Valley in the background

Felix pow skiing

In the morning we where alone in the top lift getting up to the goodies... 

Felix again

Me dropping in on a sunny ridge... (Photo: Felix Hentz)

Not perfect snow (Photo: Felix Hentz)

But then it was magic in on the north facing slopes (Photo: Felix Hentz)

(Photo: Felix Hentz)

(Photo: Felix Hentz)

Italian coffee and croissants filled with creme 

Me dropping in on the last run of the day... (Photo: Felix Hentz)

Le Fayet – A perfect day for some drytooling

Today I went down to Le Fayet and le Parc Thermal for some fun drytooling. It’s a good workout and it might prepare you for some of that mixed climbing in the mountains…  The foehn wind has been blowing hard the past two days, and the mountains on this side of Mt Blanc haven’t been welcoming to skiers and climbers. In times like these drytooling can be the perfect outdoor alternative.

The Team was built up by Jonathan Griffith, Heather Swift, Sandra Ewert, Matt Perrier and my self…  Thanks guys for a cool day at the crag…

My friend Bjarne Sahlén made a nice edit from a day at Le Fayet earlier in the season together with Carl Granlund and Morgan Sahlén. Check it out to get a picture of what drytooling is about. For more of Bjarnes cool movies check endlessflow.posterous.com. 

Drytooling from Bjarne Sahlen on Vimeo.

Getting there

Jonathan Griffith climbing

And then Matt Perrier is doing the same... 

Aiguille Verte – Another good day in the mountains, but with a bitter aftertaste

Yesterday I went up climbing Aiguille Verte with my friend Will Sim. The plan was to do a fast ascent via the route Vivagel on the northeast face. But a slow party where camping on the route. By the time we had climbed 600m, they had done 30m, and lots of ice where coming down so we decided to keep on going to the Bettembourg-Thivierge gully. A Chamonix rule of thumb; no solo climbing underneath happy campers.

Arriving to the gully we discovered that it was not in very good conditions with hard dark ice covering the whole thing. But we still thought it was much more fun than just doing the Couturier so we kept on going. With this brittle hard ice soloing together was no longer an option so we pitched the steep section and then run up the ridge to the top of Aiguille Verte.

It was a great day to hang out on the top of this beautiful mountain. Almost no wind and it were really warm in the sun. We had planned to down climb Couturier to get back, but lots of black ice made it much more logical to go down by rappel. I think we did over ten abalakov anchors on the way down and then replaced slings on some more so one could now say that the decent is properly equipped for anyone interested in climbing Verte in the next couple of days.

Everything went perfectly well for us this day, but I still came home with distaste from the day. I don’t know if it’s only me, but it seems like the objective dangers have become much bigger in the mountains this season. When we got down to the bergschrund at the end the day, the whole thing had collapsed. Skiing down the glacier also feels like walking around on a minefield in the midst of a war with black bottomless holes everywhere covered with brittle bridges. And coming home to town we get to know that one of the parties doing the traverse under Cordier after us got hit by a serac fall; one dead.

It’s a weird year up there right now with a lot of good people getting in trouble.

Its on thing to take risks depending on ones own skills in skiing and climbing or just being in the mountains, but playing the game of Russian roulette with a clip full of bullets in the world of objective dangers. That really sucks!

Now awaits a vacation from the big stuff to recharge the batteries…

Thanks Will for a good day out…

Will Sim is a really good British alpinist, only twenty years old, but still climbing like the best in the world with a maturity way beyond his years. Follow all the cool things he’s up to on his blog; willsim.blogspot.com

Le Dauphine wrote about the accident under Cordier here:
http://www.ledauphine.com/haute-savoie/2011/03/11/avalanche-de-seracs-dans-le-couloir-cordier?image=890F812C-1CAA-40F9-B177-82BA8F6EA6AF#galery (French only)

Will Sim getting ready to rock

Will climbing

On a cold belay

Will climbing

And again

Summit ridge

Looking down the Whymper

Will taking it easy on the summit of Aiguille Verte

Rapping

One of many abalakovs

Getting over the bergschrund

Mt Dolent in the sunset

And Chardonnay and Aiguille Argentiere

Will skiing skinny skis english style, really fast though

Droites and Verte in the twilight zone

Headlamp skiing

and again

Friends in Patagonia...

Friends Jonathan Griffith and Will Sim where hanging out in Patagonia climbing at the end of last year. Here is a little edit from their adventure made by Jonathan.

For more info of these guys, check them out on:

Will Sim - willsim.blogspot.com 
Jonathan Griffith -  www.alpineexposures.com/blogs/chamonix-conditions

Patagonia 2010 from Jonathan Griffith on Vimeo.

Memories from a day last summer...

My friend Carl Granlund posted some photos from one of our climbing days on the south face of Aiguille du Midi at the end of last summer. It was my first day climbing in the Chamonix mountains after my accident in the spring – it was a really nice feeling being back.  

Carl is a really talented climber from the south of Sweden that lives in Chamonix. Check out the photos from this little adventure and all the other cool things he is up to on his blog; carlgranlund.blogspot.com (Swedish only, but there are lots of cool photos). 

Another beautiful line on the south face of Aiguille du Midi (Photo: Carl Granlund)

Carli-Chassagne Gully, Aiguille du Midi – A half day training session

It’s interesting how perceptions change with time. A few years ago I used to look up at the north face of Aiguille du Midi thinking how big it felt and how I much rather ski it than climb it. I used to not train too much and it felt like it would have been a challenge to just do it bin to bin.

Today I went up there to climb one of the classic gullies together with my friend Andrew Lanham. We went up with the first bin and walked over to the Eugster couloir and followed this for a couple of hundred meters before we traversed right to Carli-Chassagne gully a bit further lookers right. 

The conditions where easy and the most of the track was already in making the snow sections go really fast. In the gully we passed some French folks and at the end of it our friends Ben O’Connor Croft and Jonathan Griffith, who came up a bin behind us and where out on a soloing mission, joined us.

So for the last half of the route our climbing became more of a social affair than “hard core alpine climbing”. We topped out just after 13 pm and where down in town just after 14 pm in perfect time for lunch.

Thanks boys for a fun day out!

Jonathan Griffith is also a kick ass photographer; check out his stuff on: www.alpineexposures.com/blogs/chamonix-conditions

Andrew Lanham walking towards the north face of Aiguille du Midi

Walking up towards the Eugster couloir

Andrew climbing

Ben O'Connor Croft in action

Jonathan Griffith 

Happy boys from the island

Getting closer

Topping out... 

Fettisdag

Yesterday was officially the semeldag! Of course we had to bake some! For you guys not from Scandinavia, to read more about them, click here!