aiguille du midi opening with Andreas fransson, David Rosenbarger , Miles Smart and Elizabeth Oakes Smart
Every year, the midi opening is a real treat. An easy adventure . I had to work the night before so the motivation was not there but when Andreas called me at 12 i got up and was geared up at the midi by 12.30. This year with the lack of snow and a bad layer at around 2500M we opted for the grand enver. It was dream powder for about a third of the run, the rest was hard snow or rocky. We finished the day at sole boot lab for some quick fix
Durier
Despite the current low tide, i was lured to the idea of spending a couple of days deep in the mountains, which didn’t happen for what seems a century. It is Bruno Compagnet bday. So we went with minna Riihimaki and Julien Casagrande. We opted for the wild and far away dome de miage area. The mountains out there are dry and feeling hostile at time …The plan des glaciers refuge is among my favorite one , cozy and comfortable in a wildly scenic area. The 2 days were well spent with good people…dolce vita. the skiing marginal.
the hike to plan des glacier refuge
le refuge plan des glaciers
the durier couloir
scratching the last remnant of a faraway storm
I can’t remember when it snowed last. We can still ski long runs under a nice sunny sky, good scenics and a bunch of characters so it is all good.
Season 14 starter.
A little bit of snow gave me enough motivation to get up there after a night working and start the new season. Shove the previous season 13 deep and far behind. The wind took out all that powder to fill up all those crevasses and make nice snow bridges. So the skiing was just OK. Fun to be back in line with skis and start that all shenanigan again.
Cedric Bernardini 