Powder skiing in June? Yes please! The catch – you have to ski tour and climb for seven hours to get it 🙂
Back on Mont Blanc this week for the final(?) ski of the season. We absolutely timed the weather and conditions to perfection. After a few days of unsettled weather we woke up on summit day to starry skies, a good refreeze and fresh snow above the hut. Getting powder turns down the north face of Mont Blanc directly from the summit is pretty special.
Having painted that rosy picture I need to counter it with the stark reality of how difficult and dangerous a ski ascent/descent is. Even getting to the Grand Mulet hut is hard work, with exposed skinning slops across the foot of the Aiguille du Midi followed by the chaotic plan glacier and the Jonction. Full of crevasses this is mandatory roped up terrain with the crux being exiting the glacier below the final slope of the hut. This year that involved some boot packing over rock and messed up crevasses and seracs with danger from above. Short-lived but unpleasant.
Breakfast the following morning was at 2am and skinning directly from the hut later on the terrain is steep and exposed. Your kick turns need to be totally solid for this. I got some bonus exercise putting in a fresh track as the old one had been filled in overnight. After the petit plateau come the seracs, and jumbled up mess of overhanging glacier that regularly spits out ice chunks that cover the ascent track. Nice.
It’s a relief to be past this and join the Gouter route coming from the Dome du Gouter on the right. With skis now on the ‘sacks it’s a slog up to the top, but so worth it! We kept the pace up with few breaks and were rewarded by being early to the summit and a massive choice of virgin snow to ski down the north face. Floss and Paul were totally solid and we enjoyed some fantastic skiing all the way back to the hut. The snow quality worsened dramatically after that, it had been rained on rather than snowed on. But by then we were focused on just getting back to the lift safe and sound.
The upper Bosses arete (the Gouter normal route) on Mont Blanc. Superb conditions for skiing with the north face which we skied on the left.
A poor quality photo, but worth posting as it gives a good idea of what skiing via the plateau route is like. Serac debris litters the ascent route on this section and there isn’t many other options other than getting your head down and passing through quickly.
Fresh powder and very dramatic scenery on the north face of Mont Blanc, June 2021.
Floss and the powder! The summit of Mont Blanc directly behind.
Paul getting some nice powder turns on the north face of Mont Blanc. The two Bosses on the ridge line behind mark the Gouter route.
