Heading up to the col du Tour Noire today in perfect spring conditions.On Friday for the last day of the BC Intro course we hiked up to the Col du Entreve for what might be my last powder turns of the 2010 Winter. We found great cold winter snow from the Col at around 3800m right down to around 2600m in the Valley Blanche. It was a perfect blue bird day, really hot in the valley and from about 2600m where we joined the VB classic, it was deep spring corn snow. Not a bad last day for the course!
This week is the Summits week which we started again off the Aiguille du Midi finding nice cold fresh snow down to about 3000m from where it turned to thick deep rotton corn snow due to a storm in the night and rain up to nearly 3000m!
Another storm hit last night laying down some more fresh snow and then the skies cleared so the mush all froze underneath. Another perfect day dawned bright and blue so we headed up the Argentiere Glacier and hiked up to the Col du Tour Noire. About 1000m of vertical, so good training for Mont Blanc and very hot! The ride down was really nice as we found cold fresh snow conditions on a firm smooth base, great for carving and for the first time this winter I took my skis for a bit of a change.
Tomorrow we're up early to head up to the Grand Mullets refuge where we'll relax for the afternoon before setting off up the Arete Royal, the North ridge of the Dome du Gouter and then onwards to the summit of Mont Blanc, if all goes to plan. Its a massive day with near enough 2000m of up and all at high altitude!
The forecast is good, infact we're having extraordinary conditions at the moment with summer temperatures so hopefully it will be a pleasant Mont Blanc rather than the cold harsh summits that we are used to at this time of year.
Anyway, I got to go pack and prep for tomorrow so I'll let you know how it all panned out in a couple of days when I'm back down.
All is good!
Neil.
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