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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When he arrived with his brother, niece, daughter and daugher’s boyfriend, we quickly boarded the gondola car for a ride up the hill. At the top we waited for the mountain to open, along with several other clients, guides and instructors.

The avalanche today was High, which means “Mostly unstable snow exists on a variety of aspects and slope angles. Natural avalanches are likely. Travel in avalanche terrain is not recommended.”

When the mountain opened, around 10 a.m. we all headed outside to “get some.” What a sweet run down the freshly fallen and blown snow back down to the base of the Gondola. The terrain off of the Gondola is steep enough to go fast down the wonderful undulations. Bopping around trees and over ridges and cat tracks was a real treat! We would stop every few minutes to regroup and let the heart rate drop a bit by allowing the blood to leave their pumped legs before doing it again. The snow was absolutely perfect, as it always is. This time perfection came in the form of about 6 inches of dense and lightly windpacked snow over a soft base.

Another Gondola and we were told that Thunder was open so we rushed over to Thunder for a few laps. The wind was honking up near the exposed top of this iconic lift that accesses some of the most varied and amazing riding terrain anywhere in the world. When I first rode Thunder it was an old two seater. Now it is a lovely and padded four seater.

Paintbrush, Amphitheater, Dick’s Ditch, Rock Garden, Grand…what a morning! And I only lost my clients once, which is a near miracle considering the blowing snow, which came from the SW and blasts your face as you ride the chair up. Every time you come to the topmost part of the lift, the exposed section above the Eggshells at the top of Tower 3 Chute, the mood on the lift tends to become a bit more somber as everyone does what they have to to protect themselves from the hammering, wind driven snow. For me this is, today at least because it was fairly warm (around 25 degrees), is putting my mittened hand on the left side of my face to block the direct stinging of the wind and snow.

As the lift line grew, it became all the more evident to my clients the advantage of hiring an instructor and being able to take the staff line, which is normally a much shorter wait. Eventually it was time to go get onto the beautiful big red box, knows as the new 31 Million Dollar Tram and only way to the top of the mountain.

Once through the top traverse and half way down Rendesvous Bowl, I could finally tell which way was up and knew I did not have frostbite on my nose and cheek. The wind was blowing so hard that if I was trying to climb a mountain I would have descended or dug a snow cave and hunkered down. It was FULL ON! I loved watching my clients and the rest of the snowboarders and skiers make their way across the top of the Bowl to their desired descent spot, braving the full onslaught of the wind and driven snow. Conditions for riding? Only in Jackson Hole!!

My clients had so much fun they signed up for tomorrow’s early tram with me as their instructor. I will do my best to instruct them well and keep them together and safe.

After a couple of laps on the Hobacks it was time for a long lunch and then some tips to dial in their toe side turn by driving their knee and turning their hip. It worked well and my client was making small radius turns in quick succession right down the steeps off of Apres Vous. Great work Melissa!

Here is a link to the Jackson Hole Trail Map. http://www.jacksonhole.com/jacksonassets/images/maps/0809wintermap.jpg

Enjoy!

Until next time…

Below are some photographs of the avalanche debris pile from the avalanche that hit the Bridger Restaurant at the top of the Gondola at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.

Mother nature…simply amazing!

I have complied and will discuss with JHMR and hopefully have them back up. I believe transparency is the best thing. Let’s tell the truth and look at the facts and move forward.

Have fun, be safe and enjoy!

Special Information: The Wyoming Department of Transportation will close Teton Pass at 8 A.M. Tuesday for avalanche reduction work. Re-opening time will be dependant on the amount of snow impacting the highway.

An upper level low pressure system brought dense snow, strong winds and very warm temperatures to Western Wyoming Monday. Winds at 10,4000 feet were west-southwesterly at 30 to 40 mile per hour averages with gusts into the 70s. Four to six inches of new snow fell during the day in the Tetons with as much as a half inch of moisture. In the past thirty six hours 6 to 8 inches of new snow have contained one and three quarters inches of water. The Continental Divide/Togwotee Pass area received 1 – 4 inches of snow and the Southwest Trails/Greys River area accumulated 2 – 4 inches. Valley floor temperatures reached into the forties and numerous roof and road cut slides occurred.

Avalanche control work at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort produced numerous hard slab avalanches to five feet in depth and running full track. The Headwall area released a moderate slide then a team used an explosive charge to control a remaining pocket. The charge pulled out most of the remaining headwall and ran to below the restaurant burying three patrolmen briefly after the debris flowed around a ninety degree corner of the building and continuing several yards. During a brief clearing in the weather several large, long crowns from naturally occurring avalanches were reported on northeasterly aspects from 8,500 to 10,000 feet. Most of these slides continue to run on the persistent mid-November crust.

For more information visit: www.jhavalanche.org or call 307.733.2664

Be safe in there and out there.

Stephen Koch

The mountain was not yet open to the public at the time the avalanche occurred.

Nature’s indifference to man – our hopes, plans, structures and even our dreams, continually impresses me.

I feel for my friend, Connie Kemmerer, who, along with her brother Jay, own Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. They have put millions of dollars into JHMR, specifically for construction of the new tram and Couloir Restaurant. I send them, along with all Jackson Hole Mountain Resort Employees, frustrated snowboarders, skiers and visitors compassion and positive energy to get through these challenging (who would have thought a lot of snow could have led to such limited riding and so much trouble?) times. That being said, at least we are not yet suffering the wiping out of entire villages as they did in Europe several years ago! Let us prey this doesn’t happen to our beloved Teton Village.

I sure enjoyed riding up the tram this morning and look forward to doing it again soon, but next time I hope to be able to ride my snowboard down instead of taking the tram down.

Thank you to the ski patrol for continuing to work their asses off during this amazing series of storms we have received over the past week. Keep up the great work and know your efforts are appreciated.

Please join me in raising my glass (filled with a tasty beverage) to the men and women of the Jackson Hole Ski Patrol.

Cheers!

May we all be safe, happy, peaceful and healthy.

Stephen Koch

After teaching snowboarding to a father and son team from GA in the afternoon I was able to walk on to the Tram and had my first ride in the new big red box. It was maybe half full of folks and was a treat to be whisked up the 4, 139′ to the top of Rendesvous Mountain in about 10 minutes. The snow on the nountain was exceptional, in both depth and quality (lightness). My 164 Rome Flag was much too small for the conditions, but considering I snuck this tram lap in after work and used the eqiupment that I had I was not complaining.

Teaching folks is fun and rewarding. Snowboarding has been such a wonderful gift in my lfie and I am thrilled to share it with others.

Let it snow!

Vinson Ski and Snowboard Expedition Team (Photo: Wade McKoy)

I like to work late. While in Antarctica after climbing and snowboarding the Vinson Massif in 1999, I had the opportunity to let my internal clock adopt its own schedule. I gradually, over the course of a week, went from going to sleep at 10 p.m. to going to sleep at 6 or 7 a.m. I believe this change occurred because of the constant light and lack of schedule as we waited for the Hercules C130 transport plane to land on the ice and take us back.

I saw Emily Coombs recently working out at Mountain Athlete with her ski gear. Emily was smiling and I thought of Doug, who was on this expedition to Vinson, along with Mark Newcomb, Dirk Collins, Wade McKoy and Doug Stoup. Five out of the six of us were from Jackson, so we not so cleverly named ourselves the Jackson Five.  Doug had masses of energy and built a pull-up bar by stacking solid Antarctica style snow blocks with his skis across the top. When the sun was out we would get to work on that thing by doing pyramids of pull-ups. The way a pyramid works is all in the group do one pull-up, one after the other and repeat until you reach your max, say 10, then do 10 again and work your way down to one. So a pyramid to 10 is 110 pull-ups. I do pull-ups “strict” now, which means without the help of my lower body. When I was doing pyramids to 20 I was definitely using my legs and “kipping.” The first time I did a pyramid to 20 was with Alex Lowe in Mendoza, Argentina. For the week after I had to get out of bed and off the ground from my stomach so I could use my arms and legs. This was due to the soreness from all the muscle tearing that occurred in my stomach.

I find it odd that my first blog post has me writing about two friends who died in the mountains. Might have something to do with it being 3:11 in the morning.

I am not in Antarctica now and my young son will be up in 4 hours calling for his nuk (milk).

Sleepy sleep…