Wow, a great start to the week!

A big first day and big grins on the Passon!

Wow, what a great start to the week!

I kicked off the Advanced BC course by diving straight into it with a big day out up the Col du Passon. This Chamonix classic, which I haven't done for ages involves a descent of the Rognongs glacier off the top tickets lift at the Grands Montets, a scoot across the Argentiere Glacier to the foot of the climb and then a couple of hours of steady uphill snowshoeing to the foot of the final steep couloir which brings you out at the Col and the top of the big descent down the Le Tour Glacier back into the valley at the village of Le Tour.

Fresh tracks for all down the Passon, great!

The day was perfect, blue skies and perfect temps for hiking, not many people on the route and as always all the other parties had headed straight down the middle taking the left hand variant which of course left the right hand slopes towards and under the Glacier free of tracks and in perfect glittering powder from top to bottom!

The next day was due to be a bit mixed with cloud and snow showers (one of the reasons for taking on such a big first day). We headed up to Le Tour to check out the back bowls, not really expecting too much. Three days after the storm and especially after 3 sunny days I was not really expecting to find so much and was hoping at best to fill in the gaps between other already ridden lines. The visibility wasn't too bad so we took a quick ride in and out inspection of the back bowls finding straight away some really nice powder. An inspection of the slopes above showed not too many tracks and the face and couloirs of the Arollete completely untouched!

We made a swift descent to the lift and hiked up over the Tete du Balm, descended to the col and then hiked up to the summet of l'Arollete. I then had a look into the couloir that runs straight off the summit and found it to be in perfect condition, perfect snow and not one track anywhere in the couloir or on the face below, Gold dust!

We rode the steep, narrow couloir and it was perfect before spreading out on the face below and scoring perfect powder all the way in to the bowl below. An amazing find for just a 15 minute hike!

We went straight back around and scored the same deal off the other side of the peak taking the diagonal couloir that splits the North Face. again steep, narrow and perfect snow all the way!

Next we hit the Possetes couloir which was great at the top but a bit more tracked than we're getting used too. A bite to eat and then back up and a quick hike up to the Tete du Balm, a slide across to the col above the Croix du fre bowl and then a new line that I've always wanted to ride down the steep south face from the col to Trient, again no tracks and perfect 10's all the way!

And so, what could have been a bad vis 'make do sort of day' turned into one of the best riding days of the season so far!

I have to say I like these 1 to 3 ratio courses.

Could this be the future?

So what to do tomorrow? Grandes Autannes is looking sweet so if the weather is a bit mixed I think we'll go for that. If its clear high up though I quite fancy the Glacier Marbree or my tip for the top the South Face of the Entreves but we need perfect weather for that. Looks like a good forecast later in the week so fingers crossed!

All is good,

Neil.