Ski Touring Gran Paradiso 4061m

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.

An early morning started with a few hours skinning towards the summit. The Gran Paradiso is one of the many 4000m peaks of the Alps and a really nice peak to ski tour….normally. Unfortunately, it turned out that that this season the Gran Paradiso area has not had that much snow, so the glacier was quite hard and icy in places.

You get beautiful views from the summit, looking back at the Mont Blanc range in one direction and over the Italian Alps in the other. The descent could have been easier and more pleasant if the snow conditions would have been better, but you have got to ski whatever mother nature provides when you are ski touring, which is part of the challenge and the beauty of this mountain sport.