STEEP
I ve been getting various messages/remarks on my camera/pictures tilting. so.. i feel the urge to clarify myself on that subject. As far as i am concerned “steep” is very subjective and is not about numbers. The steepest run i skied were not the steepest in degree.steep is a feeling: that moment when at the top of a run you realized the wind and sun have been unfair, you remember you havent tuned your super fat banana skis for a year, oh and there is a screw missing on one of the binding. that is steep. cross country skiing on those skate skis without edges can feel veeeery steep. Powder isnt steep. Now , about numbers, what is steep? in chamonix we have a long history of “steep” skiing. The most recent documented exemple is probably Andreas Franssen skiing the col de L’ aiguille verte here
or look there dd rhem or again this marco ziffredi and look up benedetti, boivin and so on and so on. you could also check Remy Lecluse blog for more recent first Descent or snowhow.it….So now that we all know what steep is and that most of us will never ski steep, can we all relax? If i tilt the pictures, it isnt because i want to show us skiing the steeps. … it is just because I like it better that way. period….i m just showing people having a lot of fun in the outdoors, i am not making a topo and well…i am not part of the stunt show.
the Rond ..a little sketchy
There is something to say about being sea side and then waking up at the top of the rond. the rond and the cosmique were not so friendly today. . slabs and hidden ice and wind crust…we triggered about 4 slabs (some bigs) skiing down and i went on 2 front flips releasing my 2 skis each time with that crusty powder.in between those, it was fun. deep and face shot . the cosmique apparently had some big slabs as well. we all made it down. safe. good times. then we did another round down the valley blanche…just because.
Finale Ligure
I crashed a party in Finale ligura, forcing myself into Kristy shelley’s car. The skiing in cham wasnt that good and storm were looming. I had never been to finale so it was a good way to go. Finale climbing is the mecca for sport limestone climbing and it is steep and sharp and steep. Luckily my new best friend rope gun hero Bryan Schneider was here to get the rope up some heinous yet beautiful 6c-6c+…awesome!. I love climbing with a sea view. then, well…THEN, the party. the down side of having a big camera is you dont take it all the time. I missed the finale debauchery ice skating drinking shenanigan. BUT, here tom grant ice skating. he wins.
Here follow are A LOT of climbing views pictures….only climbing, the guy with the funny yellow shorts is tom grant. he wins.
plateau du jardin
Ski in-ski out alpine red granit climbing just doesnt get any better than in the argentiere basin right now. take a lift, ski down, skin, climb beautiful high quality red granit and ski down at sunset with good corn along a beautiful glacier all the way to lognan . And if you time it right, you will get a freshly groomed soft “pierre a ric” down to your car. And that, was just delightful. About the climb: ok, , i suck at climbing so i rely a lot on beta and grading and dont waste a day . Espacially so in the argentiere basin where, in the summer, it takes you a minimum of 2 days to do any routes there . (one for the approach and the second for the climb and the descent). 2 days of sun in the summer on your days off is a hard one to get. i have been using a guide book for the past 2 years which was pretty good : the 6a max book. In that book they grade most of that route 4 with one 6a WRONG! totally wrong, FUCK that.FUCK them. i can somewhat lead 4’s…the entire route is sustain 5c dulfer (layback) with one biiig motha fucka 6a . those grades are the one in camptocamp.org. And I even think that some of the 5c were RUDE almost uncivilized. This is a beautiful climb with beautiful rock but goddamn! those laybacks i was cussing and coughing but having a lot of fun…Did I mention those delicates (read: scaaary) traverses?
plateau du jardin . diedre central
I sure hope that i wont be (or anyone) will be skiing the couturier when that thing will fall down.
Follow are pictures of climbing…i didnt lead anything so its all looking up which isnt the best…
watching birds and other planes.
we went rock climbing, after the second pitch, at the crux , my partner had an old injury pain he couldnt deal with any longer. And me , well, as far as alpine rock climbing leading goes, if you tell me the words: CRUX and SLAB and ROOF…i am not going anywhere . So we just sat there and watched planes , birds and climbers.
can you see the climbers
Rando day
Take a young rando racer, 1 radical ski alpinist and me. shake. And you get 1600 M vertical ascent, 3000M descent. 3 entracked couloirs with cold snow exposed and fairly steep…3 new lines for me. all between 9 am and 2.30 PM. fun day! we should have carried on to Buet but… why? and the elevation apres ski burger and beer were singing my name pretty loudly…
powder dream
luca pandolfi
water is the new oil
Now that we (occident mostly) have entirely polluted ALL of the fresh water in China by exporting our dirty industry (like euhm those great colors on patagucci clothing for exemple) China is taking control of lake Tanganyika: the second largest fresh water lake by volume in the world …good job! Future generations are going to have soo much fun!
un-to-propose-planetary-regulations-water-food
so wrong…soon we will need a permit to boil snow in the mountains…
Jon Griffith
Jon is a bad ass alpinist who takes his 5D on all his trips. And let me tell you, that is not easy….
here some picts of his last trip
Jordan Manley
Jordan Manley is an amazing photographer and videographer. I love those 2 movies of him…
arete sud aiguille du Genepi
Every year at around spring which came a little too early this year , chamonix has my favorite kind of rock climbing: ski- in ski -out alpine rock climbing . you take a lift , ski 1000 meters -skin one hour-and you are at the base of beautiful south facing perfect alpine red granit towers. from 200M to 6ooM, from classic 5c to cutting edge 7c , splitters-face-you name it…you climb your route in the most beautiful alpine scenery , all day in the sun, rap , get back on your skis and glide down 2000 meters of beautiul rollers down the glacier to your car. that way you are avoiding the long heinous approach donkeying your gear around and the long descent. Only the best. just pleasure..the epitome of “joie de vivre”. Today we chose to go in the argentiere basin to climb the genepi south ridge. A perfect choice to start the season.
refuge d argentiere
we climbed the right tower south ridge
thor
this is my foot
view
those climbs looked pretty hard
chillin out
climbing
climbing
climbing
rapping
Chardonnet. another “but” the 3rd for that line.
we wanted to ski the south face of the chardonnet. When we got to the base of it , it was very hot . too hot. the line is pretty exposed to rock fall and the couloir itself leads to a cliff band if you dont turn hard left…i thought it was sort of Ok but my partners dusan and Niklas were not so keen and went on a full strike: ass in the snow skis spread up in the sky like i had lost all my power. so French of them… so we bailed and skied 2000 meters of rollers in good corn conditions. not so bad.
Italy -Paretone. Bolt clipping
It is nothing less but delightful to go bolt clipping nice granit type rock in the middle of the Italian Vinyard.mid winter. A luxurious day of sort.
Gabbarou albioni
It was all going great until a blonde smoked us and a block of ice smashed my wrist. we backed off 2 third of the way. Not a good option to have a lazy late start on that one. people start from the hut and by the time you get there they are throwing missile at you from the rocky top……deadly.
funny how everything seems flat and small
The rond felt very steep today.
got scared for a minute…
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rest Day
We were enjoying a nice rest day drinking coffee under the sun at a chamonix terrace when at 2.30 greg called Olli saying he had just landed in town and would like to take a midi run. by 3.30 we were at the top of the cosmique ready to go for a very good sunset powder run…
Greg and Olli at the rap
ryan and greg
greg and ryan
ryan
ryan
The couloir Angelique. A glorious traverse.
Since I have skied the capucin couloir directly facing the angelique i wanted to ski it. The Angelique is very hard to get in good condition due to its aspect (south) and shape (narrow couloir). But this year , all the South faces are filled in and i thought i would give it a try with my friends Ryan Boyer , Brett Lotz visiting from California and Ross Hewitt a scottish chamonix local. WE decided to go first bin and to climb the NNE of les courtes and traverse to the Angelique on the other side. I didnt think much of that part since i have climbed and skied that face making big turns numerous times. I was wrong, it was definitely an alpine climb. The strong N wind have ripped the face of its snow and the face was almost entirely ice. Sometimes just a thin layers of not supportive snow would hide the ice which made it harder. The top 3 rd part was all dinner plate breakable which if you are not used to it is pretty scary. to be faster we all roped up on that part to Ryan who was just flying up it. Actually Ryan and Brett, the 2 californians with heavy alpine ski set up were much faster than the 2 locals. ouch! take that in your face. Oh well, i have a 3 kg cameras. that is my lame excuse. The skiing was “marginal”. the couloir is narrow with 2 banks facing west and south. each banks have different kind of snow , old hollow powder sometime , hard crust , icy bumps , rock steps and so on. and it is all pretty steep. Lower down as the angle soften, the snow was better, smooth powder or spring snow which allows us to make nice big turns. All of this made it an amazing ski-alpinism outing, very technical in an amazing setting, traversing from one basin to the other. The couloir is amazingly beautiful and is all worth it good or bad snow. Call me crazy but this is the kind of skiing I like. We were rewarded by a beautiful sunset skiing in smooth powder and corn down the talefre basin and the mer de glace and then the james bond to a fresh beer at the elevation. good day.
That is the NNE of les courtes we climbed up. Here it looks like a nice freeride run . it is. but today was all ice
that is the couloir angelique on the other side
hiking up the argentiere basin
brett at the beshrund. not a easy one
at the shrung
brett and ryan going fast
ross hewitt
to third. the ice was breakable and scary. we roped up
tyan leading
at the col
ryan boyer at col
brett lotz and ross hewitt at col
rapping
ryan boyer on alpine ski.
me trying to get a picture with lens foggy and not so stable
Brett Lotz
brett lotz
brett lotz
Italy expresso powder pizza
Need I say more?
brett
brett ryan and expresso
ryan getting it
brett
powder turn
tele turn
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pizza wine and gnocci
brett
I little ice for a warm up.
I didnt climb since i was in Lundy canyon, that is 3 months ago. so I was worthless.ice is scary and …scary and really scary. It is a good skill to have but …it is fuckin scary. it is pretty silly to climb on a frozen water fall.
brett
ryan
ryan
ryan
brett
Cedric Bernardini 
