Another really good splitboard touring week last week. Blue skies everyday, warm temps and stable conditions opened the doors for some great touring possibilities.
We warmed up with a quick tour from Brevent to Lac Noire and then up to the col du lac Noire and down the Lachenal bowl which surprisingly gave up some good snow and nice fresh turns. Most of the guys hadn't splitboarded before so this was a real warm up and training day which saw some interesting variations on the classic ski touring kick turn, not all of which worked to well. The riding was good but touring wise, things could only get better!
The next morning we headed off to the Col du Grand St Bernard, the easy tour up towards the monastery, where we were booked in for the night brought everything together and by the time we approached the Col the team were moving like Pro's.
High above the Monastery is the North facing peak of the ominously named Mont Mort! From its lofty peak untouched fields of cold undulating powder reach down into the valley, visible to anyone approaching the monastery but seemingly tantalisingly out of reach. After a quick stop en route to the Col we made a group decision (ok I might have swayed it somewhat) to go the distance and carry on past the col and climb Mont Mort for some fresh powder turns.
Hiking up above the monastry (seen below).
Great snow!
Andy carves a nice windlip!A good few hours later we dropped in for an epic untracked descent and the pains of the long ascent were a distant memory. An amazing run, great terrain with rollers, windlips and spines…Nice but shame i forgot the Go Pro!
A peaceful night sharing a dorm with 15 blokes and up and ready for another days adventure. The guys were really getting into the Splitboard touring as we set off up towards the col d en haut for a trip around the Drone. On seeing the fresh powder the other side of the first Col the group decided (without my input this time) to add a little extra hiking onto the trip and get in an extra descent down the valley that leads to La Fouley.
The access couloir!After a mellow descent in good snow we hiked back up to our original position and then continued our original route up towards the Drone. A steep couloir, climbed with crampons gave us access to the col above were we had lunch and prepared for the descent. The previous day (and the week before) I had spotted a steep untracked face descending from the top over to the left. It looked a little tricky to get into so I shot across to have a look, only to discover 2 perfect untracked powder filled couloirs leading down into a huge powder field which in turn led back in to a steepening with another couple of couloirs opening out into the big valley below. I dropped in to check it out, it was even better than it looked and the whoops from behind told me that I wasn't the only one enjoying the run.
Nice lines in great snow!Thursday we ventured up and over the Col des Autannes for some more fresh cold snow, making good time allowed us to make a descent down onto Glacier de Bron which we then hiked to the top of for a 2nd descent in perfect cold fresh powder (I had the Go Pro with me so you can see some of the footage in the clip below).
Friday, we had the Heli booked for a Splitboard heli day. On the way up I spied a great line off the Petoudes glacier variant from the Heli, which I managed to find on the way down. A new McNab secret spot gave us an amazing descent down a beautiful steep couloir in perfect snow. Check out the video below to see the footage.
After 2 weeks of touring I had a rest day on Saturday before heading off to the track today. I've just finished setting up all the boards for tomorrow and have another week of touring set up for this coming week. Looks like the weather might be changing a little bit, it would be nice to get some more fresh snow to ride, fill in all the tracks and give us some more glory turns.
I'll get the camera ready!
Not so bad!
Neil.
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