TR: Chamonix Day 5 – Grand Envers du Plan

With our bodies starting to feel a little weary after being immediately thrown in the deep end on our trip, we decided we needed to have a bit of a quieter day. In Jerome’s terms, this meant heading up the Aiguille du Midi and skiing the Grand Envers du Plan, which is probably the steepest of the Vallée Blanche variations before you start getting into ski mountaineering territory. It was also a reprise of a pretty seminal day’s skiing for us the year prior.

So he picked us up early & used his magic guide powers to get us into the first cable car of the day and up we went. The Chamonix valley and surrounding areas were covered with low cloud, but aloft it was bluebird and beautiful. Sadly we suck at getting action shots but the spectacular scenery in this post should hopefully make up for that.

L’Aiguille du Midi from the cable car midstation:

The infamous Arête:

The couloir below the bridge at the Aiguille – people abseil off the bridge to ski it: (Click this link if you don’t believe me)

All roped up and ready to descend the Arête:

While this is usually the most terrifying part of many people’s visits to Chamonix, compared to our experience last year it was really quite pedestrian. I don’t mean to sound dismissive, as walking on a knife edge of snow with a 9000′ cliff off to one side should never be taken lightly, but by this time of year it was all roped up and clear pathways were cut into the snow. Last year we were a lot earlier, it was the first day that the ropes were being put out, so we had one handrail for about 1/3 of the distance and that was it. It was also blowing a gale and snowing sideways that day, so to do it this morning in beautiful weather was quite welcomed.

Once we got to the bottom of the Arête it was time to sort out all our gear, put our skis on etc, while we were doing this Jerome took some lovely photos of this most magnificent and imposing landscape:

The dramatic massif bookended by the Grandes Jorasses and Dent du Geant:

Then it was time to head along the ridge towards the Grand Envers:

Sidestepping up to the first face of the Grand Envers:

So whilst the Arête posed little difficulties, this was where the fun began. Last time I stood at the top of the Grand Envers it was in a whiteout blizzard, with iced up goggles and a big crevasse halfway down the slope that wanted to eat me. I skied it like a pussy and it had irked me for a year.

Sadly today wasn’t the day for redemption. High winds had scoured the upper face of all the recent snow, that now dictated a hairy traverse across the face to an enormous wind lip that which had formed. Bare glacial ice was visible – not even Chuck Norris can hold an edge on that. So for precautions Jerome attached a rope to us for the traverse. Naturally as Australian skiers we are completely competent on firm snow, but the precaution was prudent and welcomed as we saw another skier slide the entire face. The face below the wind lip was 45 degrees steep hardpacked snow, and for some perverse reason it reminded me of home and I loved it.

Naturally there was a little going on at this stage, so no photos, but we were rewarded for our efforts on the second drop with steep, deep powder. Yum. In the very top left of this shot you can see some of the shitshow that was the first drop:

All smiles after skiing the powder:

The beauty of the Grand Envers is that it is a linked series of steep faces with excellent skiing. The powder was a little wind affected in spots, and further down it turned into what I thought was actually the best snow of the day – steep couloirs filled with beautiful packed powder. I was absolutely loving it, there’s nothing like skiing slopes in excess of 35 degrees in lovely snow.

We had made excellent time down the majority of the route, and reached the Requin refuge at about 10:30. Given that’s the time that we go to Koflers every day, we thought it would be rude to break the habit. Plus this was to be a bit of a leisure day so we decided to have some nice food and soak in the amazing scenery.

L’Aiguille Verte & Les Drus :

Seracs on the Vallee Blanche – later in the day the RHS of this photo became full of skiers:

Tartiflette. This meal embodies everything that is good about mountain food in France:

After a very leisurely session at the Refuge it was time to get moving. Below the Refuge was another lovely long steep couloir filled with packed powder, again stunning skiing, and we finally reached the Mer de Glace. This is a great section to reflect on your day so far, kilometer after kilometer of slight pitch, with the most amazing scenery ever. You get a sore neck skiing it!

We reached the end of the glacier, and the infamous stairs up to the Montenvers train station. It is particularly sobering that 100 years ago the glacier was at the level of the station, and as you sweat and huff and puff your way up there are various signs showing you the level of the glacier in previous decades. If you are at all skeptical that the world is now a warmer place than it was, go hike those stairs in boots with a pair of skis on your back. As we were making our way up I wondered if this was some sort of perverse atonement for our own personal contributions to global warming.

Once we reached the station it was time for a couple more photos and a return to Chamonix to end our day.

And so we ended a supposedly leisurely day! We managed to ski one of the more serious lines in the area (crazy local ski mountaineers not included!) but still fit in a lovely lunch at the Refuge and had an early finish to the day. Our early pace would have probably allowed 2 laps of the Grand Envers, but that wasn’t the kind of day we were after.

You probably won’t hear from us until Sunday/Monday, tomorrow we are taking a day off, and on Friday we are heading into the Ecrins to do 2-3 day ski touring based in a remote mountain refuge. I doubt they will have Internet there!

So thanks for all the kind comments and you will hear from us soon.