Alpine Climbing & Skiing: Frost Guiding Blog

 The Pointe de Vouasson is the big glacier face which dominates the view from the Evolene ski area. It's best approached from further up the valley, starting at la Gouille, from where it's a mere 1700m uphill to the top. Luckily there was a good track today - the sunny side is popular and has been well skied.

Whilst  a few people have skied the Evolene side down the glacier, there's still plenty of fresh snow up there. We skied down skier's left, where there's a great gully line (obvious from the lift area) which meant excellent skiing in fresh snow all the way.

Then some battling down the stream bed - the best days always involve a stream crossing and some "tight" tree skiing! - and out to Arbey before skinning home up the cross country track. 

 No work today, so we went skiing again. Perfect weather, so we went back to Bertol after turning back in cloud yesterday. The track had blown in so we got the pleasure of re-making it. From the Col de Bertol there wasn't a track in sight. Where is everyone? Plodding round to the Dent de Bertol was hard work but worth it - I'd been fearing crust on the sunny slopes down to the Arolla glacier but it was powder all the way!

Traverse of the Bouquetins anyone? 

No work today, so we went skiing. No tracks either, which made it hard work getting to Bertol. People have been out touring in the good weather but a bit of overnight wind has drifted over the skinning tracks. The plan had been to ski down the Mont Miné glacier but as we reached the col de Bertol it was looking a bit cloudy down the other side. We turned back and skied down the Torrent de Bertol instead, not bad for plan B. 

A few more pictures here from last week's ski touring in Nax and Grimentz. A blustery start to the classic Grimentz tour on Tuesday turned into a great day. We left the Lona lift in wind and low cloud but soon were skiing powder before skinning up to the Basset de Lona and skiing yet more powder down to the Moiry dam. A great day. 

From Nax on Thursday we dropped down into the Vallon de Reche before making the long but gentle climb to the Pas de Lovegno. From there it's a steep skin/boot to the top of the Becca de Lovegno, then a long and varied ski down to Suen, where we'd left a spare car! Powder most of the way but low down we at last got to ski some proper crust!

Nax has invested lots in new lifts for this winter, making it an even better place to ski. Great pistes, free car parking, comfy chair lifts...if that's not enough there's great lift-access off piste with a few huge, adventurous descents. We did the 1600m from Mont Noble into the vallon de Reche and down to Isérables - top quality, and deserted. 

 Arolla heli skiing... 3 days of great snow and fantastic skiing in Arolla was always going to be hard to beat, so the pressure was on for the heli day! We weren't disappointed though. The flight time is surpisingly short - a mere 5 minutes! - and then it's time to climb out and gasp the thin air at 3700m. With only 1 other team around and Friday's fresh snow, we were spoilt for choice. A quick slog to the top saw us skiing off the summit for 1800m of untracked descent. First the wide open slopes below the summit, then lunch at the Col de Chermontane before diving steeply down the Vuibé glacier. 

Thanks to Heli Alps for their great service. 

 It's been amazing in Arolla recently - cold temperatures, beautiful clear weather and great snow. All the Swiss ski areas seem to be reporting record numbers of skiers - good news for the hotels and lifts - but it's still really quiet off piste. 

 It's the big event of the ski mountaineering race season this week in Puy St Vincent, France. Teams from all over the world - including the British Men and Women's teams - competing in 5 races through the week. Looks like French domination so far but lots of close racing: pics, results and videos here:

http://blog.rab.uk.com/category/athletes/leanne_callaghan/

http://www.ski-ecrins.com/

Mrs Frostguiding skating furiously!

 We started the day skiing at la Forclaz. This is a great area and deserves to be much more popular - good pistes and lots of good off piste through trees, and all for CHF25.-. We arrived around 9.15 and they switched the lifts on for us! It's also a great starting point for day tours, and in the afternoon we headed up to the Col de Bréona. Blue skies at the col, deep, soft snow all the way down...excellent!

 This week we have mostly been skiing powder. Nice. Big smiles all round except for the (ex)chamois.