Early (and late) season Vallee Blanche descents can be great. They can also be fraught with risk, with open crevasses or sagging snow bridges in late spring heat.
Very often we reply to early season requests for a Valle Blanche descent with advice to leave it a few weeks until the glacier has filled in some more and the ropes have been put in place on the arete.
However this year has seen some good conditions on the glacier and I’ve found myself skiing my latest ever Vallee Blanche on the 6th June followed by my earliest on the opening weekend of the Aiguille du midi on Sunday 19th December.
It’s a pretty wild ski at the moment, with lots of crevasses to avoid and a steep section on the Aiguille du midi arete which hasn’t been equipped with the rope handrails yet, and so feels more like summer mountaineering. Crampons on and roped together, with Alastair down climbing the arete in front of me.
The skiing was pretty good though and obviously very quiet. We roped up for one section early on, as much for training purposes than anything else. Alastair is going to be guide-less on various Canadian glaciers in the near future, so we were following some “best practice” principles. There’s no quick helicopter rescue where he’s going!
The conditions are very good for a ski descent all the way to Chamonix at the moment. Very few rocks on the lower moraine, a nice track up to the Buvette and then a nice ski all the way to Chamonix itself.
We skied the Petit Envers variation, which was a nice ski albeit with a lot more crevasse exposure than would be found later on in the season. Strong and in control skiers only.
We’ll keep an eye on the conditions up there these coming weeks and look forward to getting up there again soon.
Happy Christmas and fingers crossed we are all skiing more in 2022 than we did last season!
The Aiguille du Midi and the arête with skiers descending. Definitely summer conditions right now, with some steeper sections to negotiate by down climbing. A lot different when it has a nice track and handrail to use.
Alastair leading me down the Petit Envers variation of the Vallee Blanche. Some pretty narrow ribbons of snow through some crevassed sections, but nice skiing.
Skiing between some crevasses and hard ice on the Petit Envers variation of the Vallee Blanche.
Joining the classic Vallee Blanche route after the Petit Envers.
Alastair making the crucial crossing onto the Salle A manger. Quite hard to see on this photo, but some narrow skiing with some crevasse exposure should you overcook a turn. It’ll fill in pretty soon, though.
Skiing onto the moraine at the edge of the glacier, just before walking up to the little café that makes the start of the ski descent to Chamonix. Shame I didn’t take any more photos up there, it was sunny and warm, plus the ski back to Chamonix was in great condition.
