Clive invited us to come along on a tour with his snowboard buddy Martin on a tour that he claims is his favorite single day tour in the Chamonix region. The tour starts in France at Grand Montets, and finishes in the little village of Trient in Switzerland. We didnt get much beta from Clive about the tour, except to bring a lot of water and crampons for the Col du Passon. Col du Passon is a classic tour off the Argentiere Glacier and climbing up and turning around seems to be a pretty routine tour for local skiers here, and it looks like it would be a great run, but we were headed to the other side of it today. We skied across the argentiere glacier and booted up the moraine just as the biggest single rockfall I have ever seen came off 100 feet from us and made a huge wave of snow on impact, and this was at about 9am. I cant imaging what this moraine would be like with 5 more hours of sun on it.... so we scuttled up the moraine and started skinning, happy to be out of the impact zone. Here is a photo of Alex flying up a hot sunny skin once again. I had no chance of catching him today, i didnt feel very strong.
As we skinned we talked with some guided groups we passed and realized that this has become a detour for some groups on the uber classic Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt, avoiding the rappel melee at the Col du Chardonnet.
After a hour and a half skin or so, we came to a nice steep little bootpack that would require crampons at the top, it was close to 50 degrees for a short bit, maybe 50 meters...but had good snow coverage albeit a little firm.
After a hour and a half skin or so, we came to a nice steep little bootpack that would require crampons at the top, it was close to 50 degrees for a short bit, maybe 50 meters...but had good snow coverage albeit a little firm.
After a quick lunch of saucisson and baguette, while watching the tour groups come up the bootpack and collapse immediately or step on their guide's rope going in for a hug, we set off for a super short descent to the Glacier du Tour, and traversed across it headed towards Col du Midi du Grands. The skin up this col was brutal, consistently steep for about 45 mins and drenched in sun followed by another hour of mellower skinning in the same skin melting heat as below. The views were amazing, but I was drained by the heat. Here is a shot looking back at Clive and Martin as Rylan and Alex powered on ahead of me. Some of the tracks you se ein the background of this photo are from skiplanes giving tours of the glaciated areas around Chamonix, these guys just ran laps all day flying up the valley, landing and turning around to take people back to the valley. Pretty cool watching the little planes buzz over you and land on the other side of the valley.
As we neared the top of the col, we encountered the biggest wind formed moat at the top that I have ever seen, this thing was probably 150 feet tall with 30 feet of vert at the top. Way cool. Here is a photo of Martin traversing the top of it on his way to the top of the Col.
Now its time for the good stuff, a second lunch, and a huge descent into the little village of Trient via the Glacier des Grands. The col topped out at 3235m, and Trient sits at an elevation of 1279m...Making this a 2000 meter descent! thats almost 6000 feet for you americans out there. The top yielded awesome wind creamed pow, and the last couple hundred feet were nice corn into slush...Here is Rylan making it look good in the windbuffed pow!
We arrived in trient around 4:30pm about 45 mins late for the last bus to Vallorcine to catch the train back home, so we grabbed a coke and stuck out the thumbs. About 45 mins later all five of us had gotten rides back to Chamonix, with another great day of skiing in the big mountains under out belts!
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