Summer 2022.
Nothing really happened this summer , i worked mostly . 2 Jobs. Nothing happened Except it was the driest hottest summer i experienced in 15 years . The most crowded also. Probably the coldest for the rest of our lives . The mountains didn’t look happy and healthy. The cabane de la fourche fell down. A lot of things fell down . Sweden voted a (literal) Nazi party as leadership. Italy voted a fascist one . Russia. well. Russia. Anyways . the most beautiful thing was also the simplest : The ascension festival at the cabane du cerro. This was organic . Awesome. beautiful people . Cozy atmosphere . And all. As the world is crumbling apart we need more of those things.
Some photos .
The ascension festival at the cabane du cerro was by far the best festival and party I have been to in my 15 years chamoniards existence. I’ve discovered local talents musicians painters speakers crafters chef wine makers I didn’t know existed.
A revolution was happening in this little ghostly corner of the valley and most people didn’t know about it .
The caban du cerro is older than us all , built when the bosson glacier was still alive and well . It belongs to the people of chamonix , the mayor and team vote every 6 years? or so whose project manages it .
The past years local environmental warrior and social cohesion hero Timothé was in charge of it . He transformed this little cabin into a heaven where local artists could show off their work to a crowd eating food produced almost exclusively on site . And let me be clear , in todays complete biosphere disaster lead by rogue capitalism, to transform a piece of rugged forested hills old moraine into a sustainable permaculture garden able to feed a clientele enjoying local artistry and culture all of which mentioned in the Gault et Millau guide is nothing less than a revolutionary act . Unfortunately, the elected right wing politics hate revolution. Unless it brings profits. Lots of it . So this sustainable and financially sound cultural garden of Eden was voted out to be replaced by a perfect MBA project supposedly super profitable .
So, The Cerro team decided to make a 5 days festival on their way out with all the people who participated in this adventure patrons and artists .
Anyway
Organic
revolutionary
This was good .
La culture est l’heritage de la noblesse du monde
lurking
I hung out at the top of the aiguille du midi . That is all.
Climbers on the cosmic ridge
cosmique ridge
people walking on the white desert toward the refuge des grand mulets and mont blanc summit
voie normal mont blanc
By far my favorite ski run.the south west face of les droites. Not the hardest, steepest or most bad ass by today’s standard but my favorite. One of my ambition was to climb the north face and ski that face. Never found the partner to do it with…
west face les droite
the tour ronde north face with all the satellites : adolphe rey, or de siam, capucin. great memories, great summits, great climbs. and ski.
north face tour ronde, pointe adolphe rey, grand capucin
dent du géant
dent du géant
skiers in the rond
skiers
cervin, grand combin, triolet
choucas
radness
mont blanc du tacul
shaffer
And of course, a wing suit pilot jumped…
wing suit. aiguille du midi
Refuge des grand Mulets
the refuge des grand mulets is one of my favorite refuge. Sitting on a rock at 3000 meters in an ocean of chaos. It is on the original itinerary of Mont blanc summit and now is used mostly by skiers in spring. I may do a trip there this year. most likely.
steeps
This past 20 days i haven’t skied at all but the conditions were all time and i watched the history of steep skiing unfold …it was very entertaining. The cult of self providing 3 min bad video footages and mostly bad pictures of everyone’s steep descents all over the social medias. While it was all bad quality it was showing a nice view of the steep skiing phenomena …I was baffled by the amount of good alpinists and skiers tackling 5.4 and 5.5 runs all over the mont blanc massif. I lived in chamonix for 10 years , not an alpinist, it took me 4 years before i could get on the north faces of the midi or runs on the argentiere basin north faces. I never heard of anyone skiing the north faces of the midi or the col de la verte within my first 4 years. Today with the new gear technology, every alpinists can ski and every skier is better. It takes less than a season learning skiing for an alpinist to tackle a 5.4 run which on an alpinist point of view is just a easy descent they usually run down on crampons. I saw young skiers skiing the mallory on their first season in chamonix (with a friend alpinist or guide) . So, anytime things are good (global warming helping), people line up on every run. This past 20 days was the biggest so far with every ski runs in the argentiere basin north face skied by minimum 10 people, sometime 20 people or more , the aiguille du plan north faces , pain de sucre, frendo, all the runs on the aiguille du midi skied by many. Most with huge G.S turns at mack2. Amazing. If, people were less competitive, less self centered, the medias/industry more unifying, interested and honest, the best ski movie of all time could have been made this steep season including rock star pros as well as struggling sponsored dirt bags and all the other passionate freaks. Instead, we will hear about some privileged prefabricated super hero athletes skiing whatever something in the alps or exotic location in a fabricated story with all sort of superlatives and logos claiming first decent of a 30 meters variations … I randomly stumbled on the descent of the Nant blanc by Alex Pittin, tony Lamiche and Hélias Millerioux. The nant blanc face is the most impressive, intimidating , steep and exposed face visible from the valley. The climbing is a D+ the skiing a 5.5. It was first skied by J.M Boivin in june 1989, repeated on snowboard by Marco Siffredi in june 1999. repeated again by Pierre Tardivel and Stephane Brosse in june 2009 and then by 2 of the T-crew and more (?). This mid April, Pittin (ex world cup skier) with tony Lamiche (guide, 9A rock climber , alpinist, skier) and Hélias Millerioux (guide, top alpinist, hangs out on Nupse with colin haley and ueli steck) were the first on this face, arguably the most beautiful face visible from the valley. I enjoyed the descent with Alex pittin’s father who was a little stressed and I took some photos. It was very nice. A very clean descent from first bin grand montet on sight. I’ve never been interested in skiing that face myself. I would need an alpinist for partner on that one. But you never know, 5 years from now, that face might get good from january on, until then , this face will get skied a lot more in the next month or so…
.
This is the argentiere basin north faces , All those approximate red lines show the ski runs, in the past 20 days , each one of those receive between 10 to 30 skiers.
argentiere basin
this is the top of the aiguille verte, on the top left you can see 3 skiers going up. they skied down the couturier (i saw 9 skiers that day going that way). on the right of the calotte, you can see helias millerious,tony lamiche, alex pittin getting involved in the Nant blanc face.
nant blanc, helias millerious,tony lamiche, alex pittin
nant blanc, helias millerious,tony lamiche, alex pittin
nant blanc, helias millerious,tony lamiche, alex pittin
nant blanc, helias millerious,tony lamiche, alex pittin
nant blanc, helias millerious,tony lamiche, alex pittin
nant blanc, helias millerious,tony lamiche, alex pittin
nant blanc, helias millerious,tony lamiche, alex pittin
this is Alex father watching the descent a little stressed.
nant blanc, helias millerious,tony lamiche, alex pittin
nant blanc, helias millerious,tony lamiche, alex pittin
a stormy rond and cosmique . a sunny valley blanche
jeremy heitz, laurent gauthier, leo slemmett, christopher baud, logan pehota
leo slemmett
jeremy heitz
laurent gauthier
laurent gauthier
jeremy heitz
logan pehota
logan pehota
logan pehota
logan pehota
logan pehota
logan pehota
-
- logan pehota
-
- jeremy heitz, logan pehota
-
- jeremy heitz, laurent gauthier, leo slemmett, christopher baud, logan pehota, tof henry
-
- jeremy heitz, laurent gauthier, leo slemmett, christopher baud, logan pehota
-
- christopher baud, leo slemmett
-
- jeremy heitz, laurent gauthier, logan pehota, slemmett
-
- Pica herry, Lambert , sam favret
re-entry – Chamonix
Back in Chamonix , My friend from San Fransisco was at my flat for another day so i took him down the cosmique back to cham via the junction. The cosmic had been tracked and was OK but the junction was all time …what a beautiful way to come back and a memorable last day for my friend.
next day 10 of us took a heli up the petit mont blanc to ski the super classic bonatti couloir to celebrate our friend lionel hatchemi aka so-connard birthday . A classic day. so-local. next morning was hang over day.
-
- seth Morrison
we went with tof henry to try to shoot something nice but it wasn’t in the way we wanted.
Dicks, pussies and blasphemy. Charlie Hebdo
it is a sweet delicacy to dive neck deep in fluffy snow after such a dark and heavy period where the French were hit at the very heart of their laic culture of blasphemy and irreverence towards the rich-powerful sacred and not , they were hit deep in the altar giving us corrosive and offensive humour targeting the absurdities of our world. The leftists French laic will remain impertinent and insolent against power , tyranny and intolerance sacred or not …hopefully.
One classic grand montet storm day followed by one classic la palud blue bird day were perfect to forget this absurd world. Powder all the way.
A shameless storm day At Grand Montet
Irreverent face shots
An Offensive day in la Palud, Italy
Galleria
La Palud , once more.
A lot of good skiing to be had up there. Big and steep or not. We chose not. Wandering.
pondering the entreve
mont blanc
summer
between the rain and the job; Some climbing, biking…
blaitiere, ciseaux, fou, moon
Benoit Sancesario-Lasson- mont blanc
Benoit Sancesario-Lasson- mont blanc
sunsets
I am working night shift so I am waking up to this everyday…
mont blanc, mont maudit, tacul
aiguille de chamonix: grand charmoz, Grepon
aiguille de chamonix: blaitiere, ciseaux, fou
I only climb with hot chicks
I’am glad ski season is over. The relentless mind dithering- i want to go i dont want to go dont go go go no yes no -was driving me crazy. The slow cotemplative pace of climbing, the safety of the rope just feels better for now. i suck at climbing but i like it.
eperon des cosmique. voie rebuffat
Eva Eskilsson, anna caesar
hand crack
Eva Eskilsson
Eva Eskilsson
anna caesar
Eva Eskilsson
anna caesar
May powder: a mid may morning run down the cosmique
Midi opening day with ben briggs and christian cabanilla
It is always good to have someone under 25 years old you can send first in that situation…Ben Briggs was the kid today although …I had to clean the south ridge myself. And you always need a virgin , It was Chris Cabanilla first midi run, so… … Its good and wild out there!
ps: i posted a lot of pictures, not because they are good (it was white out) but so you can assess the amount of snow around…
Alone in the bin with christian cabanilla and ben briggs
send the kids first
and the virgin: Christian cabanilla looking good.
Ben Briggs
christian cabanilla raping
christian cabanilla
christian cabanilla
Can You See The Climbers: Ueli Steck and Jon Griffith
Ueli Steck and Jon Griffith on a winter ascent of the dru last winter
I cranked up the saturation to see their bright jacket!
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
-
- dave rosenbarger
-
- dave rosenbarger
-
- dave rosenbarger
-
- nate wallace
-
- nate wallace
-
- nate wallace
-
- nate wallace
-
- mark shelp
-
- mark shelp
-
- mark shelp
-
- nicklas hansen
-
- dave rosenbarger
-
- nate wallace
-
- nate wallace
-
- nate wallace
-
- nate wallace
-
- dave rosenbarger
-
- dave rosenbarger
-
- dave rosenbarger
-
- dave rosenbarger
-
- dave rosenbarger
-
- dave rosenbarger
-
- nicklas hansen
poudreuse with a view
david rosenbarger
mark shelp
mark shelp
john minogue
john minogue
nicklas hansen
nicklas hansen
david rosenbarger
mark shelp
-
- david rosenbarger
-
- mark shelp nicklas hansen
-
- booter
-
- john minogue
-
- launch pad
-
- david rosenbarger
-
- david rosenbarger
-
- david rosenbarger
-
- mark shelp
-
- mark shelp
-
- mark shelp
-
- mark shelp
-
- mark shelp
-
- john minogue
-
- john minogue
-
- john minogue
-
- john minogue
-
- nicklas hansen
-
- david rosenbarger
-
- david rosenbarger
-
- david rosenbarger
-
- john minogue
-
- john minogue
-
- nicklas hansen
-
- nicklas hansen
-
- nicklas hansen
-
- nicklas hansen
-
- nicklas hansen
-
- david rosenbarger
-
- mark shelp
-
- mark shelp
-
- david rosenbarger
-
- david rosenbarger
-
- mark shelp
-
- 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)
