le ticket le rond le carre et la lune. aiguille du peigne.
If the words : slabs, traverse, roof are frightening to you. beyond reason: you should go there. It will be fun. 250 meter of slabs. open by Piola. and if it is too easy add some wet-ness into the equation . The rock is so good that if you can give it up, if you can balance your all life on that one little coffee spoon dish or crystal or what ever they call a hold then you will realize it is holding you and start to commit to the next move. and again and again and again …Of course i did not lead anything and i was cussing and puffing. i had fun. My next step is to find a tarantula and lick her ass.
Ben briggs getting ready
ben briggs stepping over the first roof.
what is supposed to be a hold
vision of hell
Thor husted sending it.
Thor husted
thor husted
thor husted.
god
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- ben briggs stepping over the first roof.
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- what is supposed to be a hold
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- vision of hell
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- Thor husted sending it.
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- Thor husted
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- thor husted
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- god
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- thor husted.
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- Ben briggs getting ready
wandering and lurking
That is all my job and the weather are allowing me to do these days. the patterns are as follow: days off= unsettled weather. work days=sunny and warm. I watched 3 seasons of “breaking bad” which I highly recommend. I drunk a few bottles of red wine. got fat , unfit and lazy. I went on nice short walks-climbs and witnessed radical climbing at the world cup, the chamois habitat, clouds and mountains, dog fight. I also took a co-worker on the cosmic ridge….
A nice morning walk before work. Taking Miguel on his first trip outside the cave.
world cup and dog fight
chamois rock and clouds
conte de la folie ordinaire
It is very luxurious to wake up-ride a train up 1000 meters and then walk on a sea of ice surrounded by huge mountains to the base of perfect granit crack and slab climbing. watch the moine crumble (hopefully noone was on the trail or climbing) and then walk back on the sea of ice, ride the train back to town and have a glass of wine at home.
And since some weirdo gave that name to the route we climbed i thought i would throw some related quotes from the Man himself : Bukowski.
“show me a man who lives alone and has a perpetually dirty kitchen, and 5 times out of 9 I’ll show you an exceptional man.” “show me a man who lives alone and has a perpetually clean kitchen, and 8 times out of 9 I’ll show you a man with detestable spiritual qualities.”
― Charles Bukowski, Tales of Ordinary Madness
“the free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it – basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them.”
― Charles Bukowski, Tales of Ordinary Madness
“Forgive me, I guess I am off in the head, but I mean, except for a quickie piece of ass it wouldn’t matter to me if all the people in the world died. Yes, I know it’s not nice. But I’d be as contended as a snail; it was, after all, the people who had made me unhappy.”
― Charles Bukowski, Tales of Ordinary Madness
mer de glace
the aiguille du moine crumbling
midsommar
its summer. i have given up all my big ski projects. the global warming induced heratic weather patterns have transformed my ski dreams into mushy icy hell ski nightmares. I am a climber now. or at least for the next 3 months. A sort of a climber that is. the weak one. scared .
Thor chose one of those 100 Rebuffat finest route. the grutter ridge on the aiguille des pelerins. a fairly easy airy ridge line going to the summit of the aiguille des pelerins. First climbed in 1935 by r. aubert and M .grutter. 1935 means sandbagged and scary. And sandbagged and scary it is. But so magnificient and aerial. With splendid views on the aiguilles de chamonix . A classic!
can you see the climbers
can you see the climbers
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
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.
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.
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 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
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.
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
The rond felt very steep today.
got scared for a minute…
Cedric Bernardini 