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 Grand 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 Grand 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 Grand 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.

 

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photo-blog elizabeth 15 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