poudreuse with a view
david rosenbarger
mark shelp
mark shelp
john minogue
john minogue
nicklas hansen
nicklas hansen
david rosenbarger
mark shelp
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- david rosenbarger
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- mark shelp nicklas hansen
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- booter
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- john minogue
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- launch pad
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- david rosenbarger
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- david rosenbarger
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- david rosenbarger
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- mark shelp
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- mark shelp
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- mark shelp
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- mark shelp
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- mark shelp
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- john minogue
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- john minogue
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- john minogue
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- john minogue
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- nicklas hansen
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- david rosenbarger
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- david rosenbarger
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- david rosenbarger
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- john minogue
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- john minogue
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- nicklas hansen
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- nicklas hansen
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- nicklas hansen
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- nicklas hansen
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- nicklas hansen
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- david rosenbarger
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- mark shelp
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- mark shelp
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- david rosenbarger
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- david rosenbarger
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- mark shelp
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- mark shelp
cosmique Marginalities
BEST cosmique EVER.5 stars. My friend Kevin is here for (only) another 3 days. a trip to cham isnt a trip to cham if you dont “DO” the cosmique. right?. whatever. we went there because we like it that way. too. And maybe …It could have been really good. like one of those days. surprise. no. IT was marginal. completely un -even and disfigured dismembered of sort. I and Mark still managed to enjoy it and Kevin did really good on his first marginal cosmique run . I dont remember the last time i had to traverse all the way to mid, looks like it sucks on a snowboard. Did I mention we were the only ones there? In april? blue bird powder day? that is 5 stars. (just a bunch of fuckin pussies)
les jardin de talefre
My friend Kevin who I met riding in Mammoth lakes california is visiting cham for the first time. We havent seen each other since i moved to Chamonix and he moved to Montana (is there mountains there?). So what a better way to introduce him to cham and to what Ive been doing for the past 5 years than to take him in the heart of it all: Les jardins de talefre. Loaded with wiskey, pastis and cigarettes we go on his first ride up the aiguille du midi and on to the refuge du couvercle on a 2 days trip. My 2 rad friends Brendan and Magnus joined us for the first day. We skied the croulante and the col des droites. both in good conditions. The col des droites was perfect corn top to bottom and is a great run, i have being denying that run over the more aggressive runs around for a long time and it ended up being the best skiing i’ve had in that basin. Dumb me. Despite a crampon coming off his soft snowboard boots , kevin did great and came back in one piece. We would have stayed another week there, but we ran out of booze, cigarettes and snus…
B Line -lunch at elevation and a hot chick
our plan was the summit. but, considering the funky snow we were walking on we opted for the more direct B-line. It was a very esthetic ski and a great enjoyable descent despite that snow which i cant really describe. just funky, hard to read kind of snow. but edgeable. all good. and then the hot chick with a burger.
and here are pictures from my friend philipe Ebert taken another day but it gives a good sens of scale on the first lower section with skiers on it
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
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
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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Cedric Bernardini 