First time on the Vallee Blanche
Today was a big day for first times. I’d heard a tip about the Vallée Blanche being skiable and in condition last night and got in touch with a friend to see if he wanted to do it.
I’ve never skied from the Aiguille Du Midi before. I wanted to last season but quite managed it. For those of who don’t know, the Vallée Blanche is one of the most famous off-piste routes in the world. The vertical drop from the Aiguille to the bottom is nearly 3000m, and skiing the whole route is around 22km. All of those kilometres are un-pisted, and glacial, meaning not just avalanche danger, but also crevasses too.
read more about the Vallée Blanche
So my friend and I agreed that if the weather was good we would meet at the base of the cable car in the morning and ski it together with another friend. I got a text at 9:15 to meet the other lads with a list of equipment I needed:
Transceiver, shovel, probe, crampons, ice axe, belay device, ice screws, 2 locking carabineers and my skins in case we do a little touring.
Amazingly I actually have all that equipment, and 40 mins later I was on the Aiguille cable car.
One of the problems with skiing off the midi (aside from avalanche and crevasses of course) is the Arête at the top. From the very top of the cable car you have to walk down a ridge with 1000m drops on either side. It’s serious. If you fall off, you won’t be able to stop yourself sliding to your death.
So you wear crampons and carry your skis on your pack, using an ice-axe to create an all important third point of contact with the snow. For most of the season there is a fixed rope, but not today. And it was windy. And cold. I’m not going o lie. I’ve never used crampons before and it was a sketchy half hour. I was quite scared.
But then we were on our skis again and into the first, very steep, pitch of the descent. We almost had the whole of the glacier to ourselves – it was like skiing on the moon. Then we dropped round another ridge and kept to the left, which led us into a huge, untouched powder field which put massive grins on our faces. Exiting the snow field brought us to a bit of a sketchy couloir, which frankly did look like it would slide, the only other option would be a traverse at the end of which we didn’t know what there might be anyway. So we carefully negotiated the couloir and traversed round to a mountain hut for a break and something to eat.
The second half of the skiing was down towards and through the tongue of the glacier. A very real and serious risk of falling into a crevasse exits at all times, and you can’t just trust the tracks in the snow to keep you safe. This isn’t just a little dodgy pitch on a piste we’re talking here. This is km after km of wonderful, off piste skiing.
We reached the Grotte De Glace after skiing for about 2 and a half hours, and from there we just hop on the Monenvers railway which takes us back down to Chamonix for beer and medals in the bar.
Obviously I’m gushing about the experience this evening from the length of this blog, but I’ve only really scratched the surface of what I want to say on this subject. I’m blown away by the skiing I’ve done this season already and it’s only the 11th January.
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Hello,
This year I made the Vallee Blanche from the Italien side, Courmeyeur.
When I read your article I am happy that I didn´t do it from the Aiguille de Midi. I am a really good skier, but I really had fear walking from the Ponte Heilbronner station the 150 m small icy path to start skiing. Afterwords it was a drea, perfect weather, sun and no people!
Irene