Brothers Alex and Fabian did an Introduction to Ski Touring week with their Chamonix Experience guide Dave Etherington. They spent four days ski touring and exploring different areas of the Chamonix valley to finish off with a ski tour of the Gran Paradiso in Italy. In the Val Savarenche there are no lift so you have to skin from the valley floor. They went up to the Chabod hut where they stayed the night prior to the ascent.

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photo-blog elizabeth 15 Apr 2008 No Comments

The very popular Haute Route is many people’s first experience of a multi-day ski tour. If you look further into ski touring in the Alps you quickly discover how many different ski tours there are to do. What you then discover if you actually do one of them is how quiet it is compared to the very busy Haute Route.

This group did the Haute Route last winter and wanted to try another multi-day ski tour this year. Our mountain guide Ric, came up with this 6 day itinerary starting from Les Diablerets in Switzerland. They loved it!

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photo-blog Martina Palm 06 Apr 2008 No Comments

At the end of the week, the Ski Touring Course participants decided that they should probably stop playing in the lift-accessed powder and get down to some ski touring. Guide Sebastien chose the Rhemes-Notre-Dame valley in the Aosta region of Italy. Leaving Chamonix, they headed through the Mont Blanc Tunnel to Italy. After about a three hour drive, they parked the car, put their skins on and were immediately befriended by a big white furry dog, who then accompanied them the entire way to the refuge! What Italian hospitality…

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photo-blog elizabeth 03 Apr 2008 No Comments

The Ski Touring Course participants had such a great day up l’Aiguille du Midi that they forgot to do any ski touring. They took the Aiguille du Midi cable car up from the centre of Chamonix, went to the top point of 3842m and took in the glorious paranomas.

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photo-blog elizabeth 02 Apr 2008 No Comments

This week’s Ski Touring Introduction Course consisted of six participants: Claire, Zoe, Edson, Sarah, Uta and Christoph. Sébastien Laurent was the guide, and had his work cut out for him with an unusual dilemma: we had almost too much snow for safe ski touring! Of course, no-one was complaining as they were forced to do run after run of the white fluffy stuff…..the pictures speak for themselves!

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photo-blog elizabeth 27 Mar 2008 No Comments

The Glacier Travel Course on Wednesday, the 19th of March was led by high mountain guide Yannick Graziani. Emma, Nick, David and Arnaud participated, and Anne and Elizabeth from Chamex were allowed out of the office to join in and brush up their crevasse rescue skills too.

The group took the Grands Montets cable car to the top, 3275m.  After a quick moment to admire the stunning views of l’Aiguille du Midi and Mont Blanc, they skied down towards the Argentière glacier, enjoying a few turns of fluffy powder! (more…)

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photo-blog elizabeth 20 Mar 2008 No Comments

To finish off a fabulous and powder-filled off-piste course, the Off-Pisters decided that they had enough energy to go ski touring. They took the cable car to the top of Les Grands Montets, skied down the Rognons glacier and across the Argentière glacier.  

Once across the glacier, the team stopped to put their skins on their skis and then started the sweaty uphill….. (more…)

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photo-blog elizabeth 12 Mar 2008 No Comments

The Off-Piste Workshop skiers had two more fun- and sun-filled days with they did both the Vallee Blanche and the Vallee Noire. The Vallee Blanche follows the traditional route from l’Aiguille du Midi while the Vallee Noire starts on the Italian side. Both finish on the Mer de Glace.

Some photos from l’Aiguille du Midi, after a cheeky espresso at the Chambre 9:

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photo-blog elizabeth 12 Mar 2008 No Comments

The Off-Piste Workshop skiers took advantage of an overcast day and guide Sébastien’s knowledge to learn and practice crevasse rescue and glacier travel techniques. They skied down the back side of Les Grands Montets and found some good crevasses on the Argentière glacier where they could practice rescuing themselves and others.

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photo-blog elizabeth 11 Mar 2008 No Comments

The Off-Piste Workshop from 02-07/03/08 was comprised of four participants, Christie, Peter, Gary and Graham, and was led by guide Sébastien. Depsite the bad weather that was predicted, they were lucky enough to get some great days of skiing as well as practical experience of glacier travel and crevasse rescue.

On the first day they headed up to Le Tour, took in the glorious scenery and found their ski legs. Enjoy the beautiful photos, courtesy of Peter and Christie.

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photo-blog elizabeth 11 Mar 2008 No Comments