Chamonix
I wanted to escape the Christmas ‘hurly-burly’, so I booked the last minute flight to Geneva to open my ski season in Chamonix. Very nice nippy -6 C, snow covered village bathing in sunshine welcomed me back and I couldn’t wait the next morning to have a change to hit the slopes and make the first turns of the season.
I spend the first two days skiing around the pistes to get a feel to the skis and knees again. After zickzacking groomed slopes for a while, I needed to get away from the crowds and decided to do a little tour behind Aiguilles Rouges mountains. The route is called Crochues-Berard Traverse and is very popular throughout the season as soon as there is enough snow to ski.
The start of the season in Chamonix has been very promising and already there is a very good snow cover and the slopes are in very good condition. I talked to some of the locals and they told me that they have already been skiing two weeks before Christmas waist deep (probably a little tourist extra ;)) powder.
Start of the route is easy to find after Flegere cable car and two Index lifts. I normally complete the first part on foot with skis on the backpack. Some prefer to use skins, but there was a very distinguished path going up, as there so often is, so I decided to walk as well. This first part is one of my very favourite climbs which follow a staircase towards a south spur of the Aiguille de la Floria. Climb starts from the height of 2580m and the Col reaches 2700m. This is very efficient warm up of about 40 min and the last part is quite steep and you really get a feeling like climbing the ladders up. Great view to Aiguille Verte and Mer de Glace.
After reaching the Col and a good sweat, it is nice to step over to the other side of the mountain and leave masses and buzzing of the lifts behind. This obviously changes a bit when season progresses and more people do this route in a queue. This time however it was possible to meet the tranquillity of the empty valleys.
Then skis on and few turns on hard packed snow. Without losing too much height, there is a wide side traverse underneath Aiguille du Belvedere and Pointe Alph Favre to a kind of a saddle. This part is always filled with avalanche debris, which tells its own story and therefore advisable is to make it through rapidly.
Then after a light snack looking at beautiful scenery, skins on and 30 min hike up to Col de Berard.
This is where the real fun starts and there are many variations one can choose from. Vast valley of Berard is facing north and guarded by high peaks, the fact which makes the snow stay powdery for a long time after every snowfall. Even this early in the season I managed to make a couple of very enjoyable fresh snow lines (not that deep but still…SPRAY!). Last part of the valley you follow and scramble down the river bank in a nice alpine forest to a little village of Le Buet. From there one can take a train back to Chamonix.
After receiving that great Christmas present, I concluded the nearly perfect day with a class of vin chaud and a great meal in a superb restaurant called L’Impossible.
Next day also cleared up with clear skies so I decided to go and see the other side of the valley and visit magnificent Vallee Blache glacier. There are two cable cars that take people from Chamonix up to Aiguille du Midi 3840m in less than 30min.
That nearly three km height difference done so fast can really has an effect to person’s physique. It is quite common to feel a little dizzy for few minutes up on the Midi rock satellite. To get to a start of most of the routes you need to put on your crampons and carry the skies along the Midi ridge. At this early in the season they don’t secure the ridge with fixed ropes so one needs to be quite precise when stepping down the ridge with crampons on. The narrow snow trapezium is very icy and on the left hand side there is quite dramatic drop to a nearly perpendicular north face. But the view from up there is just breath taking. With one glance you can see almost ten 4000 meter peaks, with the chain ending to a majestic dome of Mont Blanc.
My route chosen was called Envers du Plan and is to the east from so called normal route. From some places it is bit steeper and the seracs are more involved. Through that route though you can avoid the Geant serac area, which can be problematic if there is not enough snow to cover big ice blocks and crevasses.
The descent was once again magical, when sun just barely shining over Mt Blanc illuminated the whole classier with very soft and ambient early winter light. I stopped for few times to admire the incredible silence where the only sound was when ice crystals made a little chime when a gentle wind blew them over the snow.
After few nice couloirs and icy sections I reached the bottom of the valley. Far too quickly I completed the route to Mer de Glace, where you need to climb some (244) stairs to a condola that takes you to Montenvers tram station. In a fully loaded train, I leaned against the wall, closed my eyes and tried to remember the sound of the snow crystals.
