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.
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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
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
a Julien Regnier Video
this is the first pov that I actually like.
January 2012 was very powdery
luca pandolfi
luca pandolfi
luca pandolfi
luca pandolfi
luca pandolfi
luca pandolfi
luca pandolfi
tom grant
tom grant
tom grant
tom grant
Federico Ghione.
frederico ghione
luca rossi
tom grant
Federico Ghione.
luca pandolfi
luca pandolfi
luca pandolfi
luca pandolfi
luca pandolfi
luca pandolfi
luca pandolfi
luca pandolfi
luca pandolfi
luca pandolfi
luca pandolfi
luca pandolfi
luca pandolfi
luca pandolfi
tom grant
Luca Pandolfi
ross Hewitt
sami haapasalmi
sami haapasalmi
sami haapasalmi
ross Hewitt
the couloir vallancant
The vallancant is one of those runs that used to be “off the guide book trail” but is now very popular and hard to get first track. Which is understandable because it is truly an amazing descent with a very short hike. Now, there are plenty of variation which are rarely skied in the same zone so if you really need to be the first that day it should be easy. I just wanted a good ski out of the cold and wind and in the sun. too fuckin cold these days. the wind was depositing massive amount of moisture snow all around and i was a little worried about that run. I proved right , a big slab released half way down the couloir and went down to the glacier bed . It happened right before us and probably just as the 2 skiers before us exited the couloir, hence their fresh tracks on the apron. the skiing was marginal between slabby hard chalk and soft snow…we met a few chamois and were out of there on time for apres ski…
another fuckin bloggg
so people keep on saying i should have a blogg. I thought facebook and flickr should be enough; free, interactive and ..damn! another . be it. it is a photoblogg. with some picture. i will just shut up and post a picture.
les houches
eiger.
the ogre the monk and the virgin. i am not sure what s&M porn story the swiss german have but my dreams were dirty…we skied the 1600 M west face of the eiger. like in the sierra california, you have to hike every inches you ski. it ended up being an awesome trip out in the mountains with great friends and co…the conditions were typical of a 1600 M west face in the springs: variable. its about 40 degree more or less for 1600 M. the top 500 meters are worth the trip; nicely peppered, beautifully exposed, the north face right there and you looking down at 1600 meters of what looks like a forever run. then its like skiing grand montet sometime with a giant serac over your head. It took us between 3.30 and 4 hours to get up it.
couloir du diable
This is too me the most impressive and intimidating couloir on the east face of tacul I went with Luca, both of us weren’t sure about that one until we started climbing. Sick day up really high …
Cedric Bernardini 
