back at work.
I am back at work. night shift .in the past 2 weeks i have been trying to rea-just to those hours and the default world i am stuck with. It does not fit skiing. Especially when the high mountains are really good and screaming my name. Especially when the gerva is good. The gervasutti is the king of all couloir. standing there with a fun angle top to bottom. a skier dream. It is Guarded by a gigantic serac which in the past 5 years i have been in cham kept on breaking and taking all the snow away. This is the first year i see it that way. And i am working. Every time there is a window i am working. I tried to go after work at 7, the condition looked sketchy and i didnt feel like i could deal if things went wrong so i bailed.I watched my friends skiing it a little frustrated. i was off last night so me and ben went back up despite a week of precipitation and over a meter of snow. We got kicked out of the midi station in the storm . this is dysneyland up there now, those days are over, you have to go to hotel cosmique and spent 50 euros.we are not a refuge. the “compagnie du mont blanc” who celebrate alpinists from the past in a gallery doesnt want the present alpinits in its hallways.They kick them out like “mal propre” .how sad, they lost the spirit. The “aiguille du midi” is now an anesthetized ride that takes hordes of chinese and other indian who will stay 10 minute and buy souvenir made in china or india. they will soon forbid skis and ice axes.
. Anyway, we skied the ridge and the south side sled with just a touch. when we got to the slope before the perroux hut, it sled as well with barely a touch. the perroux hut needs some love, the door is broken, there are no blankets left and some trash . it is my mission for this summer. if you have blankets let me know. we climbed the first 100 meters of the triangle du tacul and heard a big deep womp followed with some movement. we bailed smoothly but fast. . no gerva. and tomorrow no partners. and then work. fuck. sweet obsession….
nicklas hansen
nicklas hansen
This is the old perroux hut , it needs some fixing : the door is broken and other stuff. it needs blankets as well. And since “the compagnie du mont blanc” doesnt want any dirty alpinists in the hallway , it could disturb the japenese/chinese/ indians watching a movie on alpinism…we might have to spent some time in there…
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- nicklas hansen
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- This is the old perroux hut , it needs some fixing : the door is broken and other stuff. it needs blankets as well. And since “the compagnie du mont blanc” doesnt want any dirty alpinists in the hallway , it could disturb the japenese/chinese/ indians watching a movie on alpinism…we might have to spent some time in there…
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- nicklas hansen
Adventure yoga retreat in kalymnos the end. climbing, tits grabbing and beatches.
the apartment we rented was very nice and conveniently located , 15 min from the grand grotto (kalymnos main attraction) 2 min from the beach and town. It was fully equiped and clean. The owner is Antonio Galouzis : www.agalouzis.com. Antonio and his wife are amazing people and made sure our stay was delightul. Very often , we would come back from sending 8a all day and be greeted by tasty greek delicacy made by Antonio’s wife. (the first pictures shows the apt). Also , the trip was organized by adventure yoga retreat. It went as smoothly as it could be. They have yoga surf trips in portugal as well. The people in Kalymnos are very nice and welcoming. I highly encourage anyone to go to Kalymnos or anywhere in greece and spend as many euros as you could. IT will be well worth it. And good for greece. I will shut up now…time for the tits grabbing pictures…
this was our house
the hole. some good climbing in there.
the cove
hot chicks
heather swift
heather swift
find the climber-
find the climber-
the hole
cape town (S.Africa) versus Bishop (california): Johnathan Jacobs (cape town) won by far.
cape town (S.Africa) versus Bishop (california): Johnathan Jacobs (cape town) won by far.
lunch
Johnathan Jacobs
moon
the crew departure
tits handle bar….
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- find the climber-
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- find the climber-
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- find the climber-
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- tits handle bar….
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- hot chicks
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- the cove
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- the hole. some good climbing in there.
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- the hole
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- find the climber
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- the hole
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- lunch
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- heather climbing
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- heather swift
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- heather swift
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- Johnathan Jacobs
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- cape town (S.Africa) versus Bishop (california): Johnathan Jacobs (cape town) won by far.
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- cape town (S.Africa) versus Bishop (california): Johnathan Jacobs (cape town) won by far.
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- this was our house
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- the crew departure
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- me and the chicks
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- me an the chicks
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- sunset good bye
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- moon
find the climber . 1…Kalymnos with adventure yoga retreat
Kalymnos with adventure yoga retreat
Johnathan Jacobs
Johnathan Jacobs
Johnathan Jacobs
Johnathan Jacobs
kalymnos – yoga-eat-climb-beach-climb-eat-yoga-eat-beach….sleep
Kalymnos and its people are superb and so is the climbing, the food the house and everything. with alpine yoga and climbing retreat
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- house
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- pilate
col de la brenva : voie tardivel. The wild side.
go up mont maudit make a left.
Dropping there is a very special moment. it is a very intense,unusual time. Everything looks huge and brutal . you know you are in for a very long ski in a very wild and beautiful place.
When we scoped the face from the tour ronde i thought it was going to be a lot easier: a nice ballad. the scale is so huge, from that far away i couldnt size things correctly. Like the gigantic serac and cornices we were skiing under , the rock bands which were a lot bigger and steeper , the overall lenght of the face. WE had a nice 20 cm of fresh snow on the top of nice edge-able crust. I could never find a safe spot or even anckor myself to my poles to set up and take pictures. Its never too steep but never a comfortable angle. At every turns, my partners would throw some wet heavy snow that could potentially take me off my edges. whilst Taking pictures of skiers under the serac i thought what if that thing goes, would I feel stupid for being here, will i get knocked off and slide down the abyss… I rapidly switched my mind back to enjoying the skiing , breath-in the outrageously beautiful and wild place i am in the middle of . I realize how privileged i am to be there. thanks to skiing and tardivel.
The route finding in the rock band was not hard but stressful knowing what is above you.
It is surely among the most beautiful face i have skied in the wildest place i have been to. also the most dangerous.
After skiing the face we went over the kuffner ridge and we skied down another steep couloir in hard condition with very tired legs. we then skied the valley blanche, we went up the montenver steps and rode the train down to cham. We Finished the day with a well deserved beer and burger at elevation.
this is the face, Brenden who took the first bin is on it , can you see him?
the previous evening
midi bivy
Ben is the only one to ski the ridge, in the dark with north wind and in really bad condition.
on the kuffner , the last steep couloir before the valley blanche and the beer.
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- on the kuffner ridge
du maïs sur la tour ronde
harvesting corn on the tour ronde was just perfect. fuck extreme skiing! and fuck that hair on my sensor.
spring powder. 2 days in the valley with Mark Shelp and Michael-bird-shaffer
une bande de cochons et pis c est tous. des salopards au col des courtes …
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- powder
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- ready to go
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- col des courte
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- col des courtes
greenland
I was hired as a photographer by elemental adventure
things didnt happen as planned due to a broken heli. nevertheless we scored 3 good days of skiing: swiss style . The villages and the people are beautiful and generous , the scenics are just breathtaking hense the amount of pictures. I tried to put just a few…i will just shut up then! I want to go back.
too much foehn here. I am heading to greenland
I was hired as a photographer by elemental adventure to take pictures on a heliski trip in greenland. I am heading there sunday. I will keep on posting once i am there. meanwhile 2 videos:
freeriding in chamonix the past 2 weeks:
freeriding in austria? sometime before I was born:
bird watching
i realized on the ridge that my bindings i had switched on a new used pair of skis were at the wrong size, that and the skis were delaming…lame! i stayed up and watched birds.
the white room.
Ally Swinton
Philip Ebert
Philip Ebert
Ally Swinton
Ally Swinton
Philip Ebert
Ally Swinton
Philip Ebert
A daley cosmique. a bird with an umbrella. flower. apres ski with a red fish.
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- David Rosenbarger
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- future badass alpinist
Jordan manley
Jordan Manley is still my favorite ski film director.
Freshfield Icefield: A Skier’s Journey Ep3 from Jordan Manley Photography on Vimeo.
the window
the spring weather patterns are making the weatherman look like a hysterical junky who took a bunch of acid before writing his forecast. However, we found a window big enough for a kaw-aw-wing crowmonkey, a growling goat, a punkviking a few frenchies some yankees ..later followed by more vikings and one south african.
dave rosenbarger
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- dave rosenbarger
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- dave rosenbarger
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- dave rosenbarger
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- nate wallace
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- nate wallace
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- nate wallace
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- nate wallace
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- mark shelp
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- mark shelp
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- mark shelp
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- nicklas hansen
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- dave rosenbarger
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- nate wallace
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- nate wallace
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- nate wallace
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- nate wallace
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- dave rosenbarger
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- dave rosenbarger
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- dave rosenbarger
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- dave rosenbarger
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- dave rosenbarger
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- dave rosenbarger
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- nicklas hansen
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
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
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.
Cedric Bernardini 
