Stephen Koch

I did not snowboard the north face of the Aiguille du Midi while I lived in Chamonix in 1990, although I wanted to.

I did make some turns along the north side of the ridge traversing to the glacier on my way to ride the Gervasutti Couloir on Mont Blanc du Tacul. The “Gervasutti,” as it is known, is situated between a bergschrund at 3465 meters and the summit ridge at 4200 meters and was first climbed in 1934 by the Italian Giusto Gervasutti and his companion Renato Chabod. The steepness of the couloir averages 45° and is 55° at its steepest.   The Gervasutti has seen a number of tragedies over the years, including that of my friend and occasional skiing and chess partner Hans Saari . Hans fell in the direct entrance to the couloir after losing his edge on ice. Check out the link above to know more about the Hans Saari Memorial Fund and the good work they are doing in Hans’ honor!

The Gervasutti was first skied by Sylvain Saudan on the 17th October 1968. Saudan is one of the great early pioneers of extreme skiing.

Here is a 1 minute video of  Tobias Granath skiing the Gervasutti. The video shows the steepness of the couloir nicely.

I opted to break the golden rule of climbing what you ski/ride on this instance, and paid a small price…others have not been as fortunate as I. The Gervasutti has towering seracs menacing the slopes below. To minimize the risk of getting wiped out from an ice avalanche if the ’schrund calved, I walked up the back side instead of climbing directly up the couloir under the “hang fire,” before dropping in, as Hans had done. I slipped on ice towards the lower part of  the Couloir but was able to self arrest with my ice ax and eventually able to force an old, dull Russian titanium ice screw into the ice and clip into the screw with a daisy chain (leash) attached to my harness just as my gloved hand slipped out of my ice ax leash. Phew! A quick change to crampons for a short climb to the snow, and soon I was riding again. I jumped the 15′ bergschrund at the bottom of the couloir and, upon landing, popped out of both bindings! My binding screws were loose!

Let’s just say, after this and a couple other near misses, I was fortunate to make it out of Chamonix alive and with many learning experiences to learn from moving forward!

I like the short video below…of a Frenchman skiing four routes on the north face of the Aiguille du Midi above Chamonix.

Enjoy!

4 routes.2 friends.1 camera. from sébastien montaz-rosset on Vimeo.

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