Chamonix: Greg Stump thanks for the inspiration!

As most of know the winter here in Euroland has been marginal to say the least but there is still great fun to be had. After last weekends “dust and crust” adventure with Ripz and TeleAl I headed the other direction to Chamonix to meet up with BBirtle a fellow snow loving skier from TGR. I woke in the AM on Friday after a night of cocktails on Thursday with some friends. The weather report said that 30-40cm could fall over 2000M and it did, but it was a slushy mess up to 2700M. That being said we were really unsure of the conditions as we left for the Grands Montets on Friday. The lifts were closed until 10AM for Avi control, but after that we headed to find a soupy mess.
Great Vis:



The first 10 turns were nice pow/wind blown, but after that was saturated garbage. After a few laps and a little lunch we decided that Saturday may be the day on the Aigulle du Midi. After a beer in town (Chambre 9) Brain suggested that I should get some crampon/ice axe pratice for the next day. The prediction of a clear up started to happen as we headed to practice.


Crampon practive was very cool and I headed back to Geneva to get some rest for the big day.
Saturday I awoke to a killer morning with bluebird and decided this was the day to hit the Valle Blanche.

We hit the 9AM cable car you (Brian, myself, and another Mag Matias...who actually works in my building) and headed up to the ADM. As I arrived at the station I started to think back to the Blizzard of Ahh's by Greg Stump....the images were clear in my head from my childhood. I realized I was going to ski places that I only saw in ski flicks.
Mid Station:


From the Mid we were going to this!

As we arrived at the top of the ADM I started to get really stoked. I saw the world famous "arete" and ice tunnel. I was ready to rock!



East Coast in CH!!!


In the tunnel we put on our crampons and headed down the arete. We are at 12,605 feet so the air was thin but not bad. The arete ended up being not that bad. There was some exposure that if you fell you would die, but with the fixed rope everything was chill.

The first pitch off the arete. Brian and Matias:


After the first pitch we hiked a little to see if the Glacier Rond was going to be good. The enterence to the Rond was very narrow, icy, and exposed and I mean exposed. We decided the best course of action was to put on our crampons and traverse in. This traverse was no joke with crazy exposure to death, but a little planning and deep breathes life was good. We checked it out, but it looked thin, so we turned around and headed to a little powder spot left of the Vallee Blanche tourist route which delivered the goods!





The top sections was really nice snow and then we headed into the glacier where we needed to be careful and watch out for the seracs and crevasses. Overall this place was just amazing. I have never seen this type of topography in my life!



After the flat traverse out we needed to get to a small gondie which was perched on a 500ft cliff. This was NOT fun. There is a 50 story staircase that you needed to climb...again not fun but required to get to the train. We got there after a little huffing and puffing but actually was good excercise. We took the train down and hooked up with some lunch in town. Both Brian and Matias are very chill, so we had good conversations over lunch. 3PM rolled around and it was time to leave. Matias and Brian were going to go climbing so I was going to go back to Geneva, but I decided...screw it I will go! We went down to Les Houches to an indoor climbing wall and I learned some the basic. I actually did a lead on a 5A

3 hours later my ass was beat, so I said my regards to B and M and headed home.
Overall a great B-day weekend. Thank you B and M for the tour, Mom and Dad for the love, and all my friends that sent cards, emails, and SMS....much love to all. -GG