backcountry suggestions europe

Pablo Escobar wrote:the Aiguille du Midi

I have been looking into the prospect of "doing" this recently. Looks, erm, interesting.

Tony_H wrote:

Pablo Escobar wrote:the Aiguille du Midi

I have been looking into the prospect of "doing" this recently. Looks, erm, interesting.

The north face is even more, erm, interesting. I think this is one of the skiable lines.

Pablo Escobar wrote:

Tony_H wrote:

Pablo Escobar wrote:the Aiguille du Midi

I have been looking into the prospect of "doing" this recently. Looks, erm, interesting.

The north face is even more, erm, interesting. I think this is one of the skiable lines.

Your interesting is a lot more mental than mine

Tony_H wrote:

Pablo Escobar wrote:the Aiguille du Midi

I have been looking into the prospect of "doing" this recently. Looks, erm, interesting.

One of the Guides Bureau told me I wasn´t a good enough skier to do the Vallee Blanche (unless you`re really planning to ski the Aguille du Midi, in which case buy life insurance now) :shock:

bandit wrote:

Tony_H wrote:

Pablo Escobar wrote:the Aiguille du Midi

I have been looking into the prospect of "doing" this recently. Looks, erm, interesting.

One of the Guides Bureau told me I wasn´t a good enough skier to do the Vallee Blanche (unless you`re really planning to ski the Aguille du Midi, in which case buy life insurance now) :shock:

Thats interesting. I read an article in the Sunday Telegraph about the Vallee Blanche, and the journalist who did it with a guide was an intermediate skier with little off piste experience, and he said he was fine, and that any skier who was competent and reasonable would be fine.

Tony_H wrote:

bandit wrote:

Tony_H wrote:

Pablo Escobar wrote:the Aiguille du Midi

I have been looking into the prospect of "doing" this recently. Looks, erm, interesting.

One of the Guides Bureau told me I wasn´t a good enough skier to do the Vallee Blanche (unless you`re really planning to ski the Aguille du Midi, in which case buy life insurance now) :shock:

Thats interesting. I read an article in the Sunday Telegraph about the Vallee Blanche, and the journalist who did it with a guide was an intermediate skier with little off piste experience, and he said he was fine, and that any skier who was competent and reasonable would be fine.

I'm surprised by that too. I booked guides for many groups to do the Vallee Blanche and their standard line (the guides, that is) was if you are confident on red runs you'll manage fine. They can vary the difficulty depending on the exact route and the snow conditions do obviously play a part but its not seriously difficult. If you have a problem with heights though, the access is pretty scary.

bandit wrote:One of the Guides Bureau told me I wasn´t a good enough skier to do the Vallee Blanche

:?: ...yeah, but how long ago was that? No way would the Vallee Blanche give you any kind of trouble el bandito. I coped fine way back in my pre-Optimum days (so would have been skiing old-school style on skinnies).

It is no worse than a decent Blue for most of its length, albeit with the rather crucial difference that you will likely survive if you fluff a turn on an actual Blue... You do need to be able to turn and stop accurately as there are a couple of points (depending on snow cover) where you have to pick your way down amongst huge chunks of ice and between crevasses. IIRC that's where two glaciers merge?

For most of the route you're in vast open spaces at a fairly shallow gradient. Important to follow the guide, precisely, as this is almost all glaciated and the crevasses below the snow go all the way to the centre of the Earth and you'll be eaten by dinosaurs and your remains frozen for all time (think that's what he said, but my French wasn't up to much...).

It is 20-25km, with no way out, so you do need to be reasonably fit. Depending on snow you may be walking the last few km too.

The other thing you need is a head for heights. Before you get your skis on you need to carry them down the arrete... :shock: ...edging down a steep ridge that has a steep drop of several hundred metres on one side, and around 1500 metres on the other, does concentrate the mind.

It needs to be on your "must do soon" list, Tony. :thumbup:

It shouldn't be compared to the North Face, however; that is for nutters... 8) ...and Phil Ingle. :shock:

There is a video somewhere of folk skiing it, that really puts it in to perspective.