Chris was feeling the cold, and decided to embrace the fireplace.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Ski Verbier
Easter saw us on a mini-break in Verbier with friends. Or Le Chable, rather, a less rich & famous village just below it. We seemed to hit the jackpot, with oodles of powder, blue skies and acres of off piste to be had for the price of a bit of boot packing or skinning. Switzerland really is amazing. Expensive, but amazing. The second-accurate train runs from inside the airport terminal, and stops (on the second, naturally) two minutes walk from the hotel in Le Chable. We flew from East Midlands, and met Chris and Nana at the airport, coming from Heathrow. Tom and Tasha, the boarders, had arrived earlier, hoping to maximise the snow time. Lorne, a friend from Bristol lives in Le Chable, working as a ski instructor, and her partner John was out, too. They have a lot of local knowledge between them.
Our hotel was basic, but clean and functional. Le Chable isn't really a ski resort in any way - just a local village that happens to have a gondola running to the top of its more famous neighbour. The weather forecast said that our first ski day would be the most stable, with masses of snow to follow. John suggested that this may be our only opportunity to tackle one of the many celebrated ski tours available in the Valais. He proposed an ascent of Rosablanche (3336m).
The following morning we were greeted with blue skies, and Sarah and I quickly packed tranceivers, shovels, probes, lunch, water and skins. The ascent would take somewhere between 2.5 and 4 hours depending on fitness and snow conditions. We met up with John, and took the lifts as far as we could, and after a bit of a traverse, donned the skins and set off. Skinning is sweaty work, but usually not super-strenuous - you settle into a kind of hypnotic rhythm, more like hill walking, rather than fell running. The first bit took about 20 mins or so, and from the top a traversed descent took us into a different world, away from lifts and any sign of other people. The views were out of this world, and untouched powder everywhere for the adventurous. The next climb was longer, but gentler, and before long we reached a ridge at 3000m, finally revealing the full extent of the glacier that would form our descent, and the main objective, the summit of Rosablanche. We could now see other parties approaching from all sorts of directions. The Rosablanche summit is on the Chamonix to Zermatt Haute Route. Another long traverse, and then the final 336 meters of ascent.
Something weird happened here. Suddenly, all other parties were overtaking us. Instead of the previous 100 steps, 5 sec breather, 100 steps, I was now on 10 steps, 1 minute breather, 10 steps. I'm obviously rubbish at altitude. Getting to the summit ridge rewarded us with breathtaking views of the Swiss alps - with the Matterhorn poking through the clouds. It was now desperately cold - I was unable to retain the heat in fingers and toes. We quickly peeled the climbing skins, and scrambled up to the summit cairn for the full tick.
The way down was over all too quick, with wonderful powder on top of the glacier. We are thinking of doing some touring for the honeymoon, but Sarah offed that idea on the way up. It was on again on the way down though.
On the Sunday we did the full 4 Vallee traverse, that is we tried to cover as much of the piste system as our lift passes allowed. Chris and Nana came with us, and they did a remarkable job on some of the steep blacks that need negotiating. We ended up in a lovely slopeside restaurant, devouring some of the local dried meats. And a cheeky pint.
A lot of snow fell, and due to the fact that we had the advantage of local knowledge, we got plenty of fresh tracks and crazy drops. On the last day we climbed up the Stairway to Heaven, a quick boot pack up to a hidden, powder-filled bowl of magic.
Verbier really is an off-piste heaven - skins open up amazing terrain, and even short walks gets you away from the crowds in minutes.
Our hotel was basic, but clean and functional. Le Chable isn't really a ski resort in any way - just a local village that happens to have a gondola running to the top of its more famous neighbour. The weather forecast said that our first ski day would be the most stable, with masses of snow to follow. John suggested that this may be our only opportunity to tackle one of the many celebrated ski tours available in the Valais. He proposed an ascent of Rosablanche (3336m).
The following morning we were greeted with blue skies, and Sarah and I quickly packed tranceivers, shovels, probes, lunch, water and skins. The ascent would take somewhere between 2.5 and 4 hours depending on fitness and snow conditions. We met up with John, and took the lifts as far as we could, and after a bit of a traverse, donned the skins and set off. Skinning is sweaty work, but usually not super-strenuous - you settle into a kind of hypnotic rhythm, more like hill walking, rather than fell running. The first bit took about 20 mins or so, and from the top a traversed descent took us into a different world, away from lifts and any sign of other people. The views were out of this world, and untouched powder everywhere for the adventurous. The next climb was longer, but gentler, and before long we reached a ridge at 3000m, finally revealing the full extent of the glacier that would form our descent, and the main objective, the summit of Rosablanche. We could now see other parties approaching from all sorts of directions. The Rosablanche summit is on the Chamonix to Zermatt Haute Route. Another long traverse, and then the final 336 meters of ascent.
Something weird happened here. Suddenly, all other parties were overtaking us. Instead of the previous 100 steps, 5 sec breather, 100 steps, I was now on 10 steps, 1 minute breather, 10 steps. I'm obviously rubbish at altitude. Getting to the summit ridge rewarded us with breathtaking views of the Swiss alps - with the Matterhorn poking through the clouds. It was now desperately cold - I was unable to retain the heat in fingers and toes. We quickly peeled the climbing skins, and scrambled up to the summit cairn for the full tick.
The way down was over all too quick, with wonderful powder on top of the glacier. We are thinking of doing some touring for the honeymoon, but Sarah offed that idea on the way up. It was on again on the way down though.
On the Sunday we did the full 4 Vallee traverse, that is we tried to cover as much of the piste system as our lift passes allowed. Chris and Nana came with us, and they did a remarkable job on some of the steep blacks that need negotiating. We ended up in a lovely slopeside restaurant, devouring some of the local dried meats. And a cheeky pint.
A lot of snow fell, and due to the fact that we had the advantage of local knowledge, we got plenty of fresh tracks and crazy drops. On the last day we climbed up the Stairway to Heaven, a quick boot pack up to a hidden, powder-filled bowl of magic.
Verbier really is an off-piste heaven - skins open up amazing terrain, and even short walks gets you away from the crowds in minutes.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Ski Fernie
So, the main event of this ski season, two weeks in the Canadian powder paradise, Fernie. We got picked up from Calgary Airport by Tom, after a long, but uneventful flight out of Gatwick. Tom provided a running commentary on North American skiing, and Fernie in particular. During January and most of February they've had a sequence of big powder dumps, snowing on average twice a week - until now, two weeks without snowfall. Our hearts sank a bit a this tidbit of local knowledge. We pulled in to the Chalet, and got greeted by Susan, the owner and manager - she's Canadian, but lived for many years in the UK, and she sounds much more English than Canadian. The first week the chalet is onlly half-full - there's Ken, a keen ski-tourer and long-time visitor to the chalet, and Gordon and Helen, another English couple. The Chalet is very different from your youth trips to the Alps - beautiful wooden interior, massive open fire place, hot tub, large bedrooms. We settle in, and try to stay awake.
Fernie ski hill is anything but a hill. It consists of 5 large alpine bowls accessible by lift, and about as many again, technically out of bounds, but accessible by foot or by skinning. Part of the draw of staying with Canadian Powder Tours was that they will guide every day, and no pandering to the weakest link - keep up, or peel off. We covered some impressive locals only terrain, thanks to Susan. She did not guide us into Fishbowl, she just happened to be there by accident :)
Although the hill was in excellent groomed condition, and virtually empty by Euro standards, we had come for the powder. Susan was sure that we'd get a bit of a Fernie 'flurry' before we left - that's 40cm over night, and she was right - when it came, it really came. We had two days of the most amazing powder skiing - in the bowls, in Fish, between the trees, on the piste, off the piste. On the Tuesday the skies cleared, and we were at the lift before opening - the locals evidently only ski on powder days, and for the first time we actually had to queue for a minute or two. Two opticians from Slough, Dave and Mark, had joined us a few days before, and thus timed it immaculately.
It's amazing how quickly the powder gets tracked out, at least the accessible bits. Come 3pm our legs were jelly, but it didn't really matter that much as what was left was pretty choppy. We retreated to the bar, and decided to go cat-skiing the next day in search of virgin snow. Cat-skiing is sometimes referred to as a poor-man's heli-skiing - it's still pretty costly, and can't quite cover the same terrain. The 'Cat' is essentially a piste bashing machine, and we got 8 drops done. Unfortunately, we were slightly let down by the temperatures, in that the snow was getting the full brunt of the sun, and being more akin to wet concrete than Champagne powder in places.
Fernie is a most excellent place to ski. By Euro standards the infrastructure is primitive, but there aren't any crowds. Susan's chalet is a real home-from-home, with a really good bunch of like-minded people. Even the boarders.
Oh, and I proposed to Sarah.
Fernie ski hill is anything but a hill. It consists of 5 large alpine bowls accessible by lift, and about as many again, technically out of bounds, but accessible by foot or by skinning. Part of the draw of staying with Canadian Powder Tours was that they will guide every day, and no pandering to the weakest link - keep up, or peel off. We covered some impressive locals only terrain, thanks to Susan. She did not guide us into Fishbowl, she just happened to be there by accident :)
Although the hill was in excellent groomed condition, and virtually empty by Euro standards, we had come for the powder. Susan was sure that we'd get a bit of a Fernie 'flurry' before we left - that's 40cm over night, and she was right - when it came, it really came. We had two days of the most amazing powder skiing - in the bowls, in Fish, between the trees, on the piste, off the piste. On the Tuesday the skies cleared, and we were at the lift before opening - the locals evidently only ski on powder days, and for the first time we actually had to queue for a minute or two. Two opticians from Slough, Dave and Mark, had joined us a few days before, and thus timed it immaculately.
It's amazing how quickly the powder gets tracked out, at least the accessible bits. Come 3pm our legs were jelly, but it didn't really matter that much as what was left was pretty choppy. We retreated to the bar, and decided to go cat-skiing the next day in search of virgin snow. Cat-skiing is sometimes referred to as a poor-man's heli-skiing - it's still pretty costly, and can't quite cover the same terrain. The 'Cat' is essentially a piste bashing machine, and we got 8 drops done. Unfortunately, we were slightly let down by the temperatures, in that the snow was getting the full brunt of the sun, and being more akin to wet concrete than Champagne powder in places.
Fernie is a most excellent place to ski. By Euro standards the infrastructure is primitive, but there aren't any crowds. Susan's chalet is a real home-from-home, with a really good bunch of like-minded people. Even the boarders.
Oh, and I proposed to Sarah.
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