La Grave!!!

The girls and I decided to head to La Grave for a couple days after Chamonix. We had a hook-up from a friend with a couple of the guides there Keith and Joe. These guys soon became our new favorite people, because they took us to ski some of the coolest terrain and couloirs I have ever skied. I knew little of La Grave except it was a mecca for ski mountaineering and steep long couloirs. Also I knew that Doug Coombs had called this place home, so I knew it had to be pretty amazing! Driving to La Grave in a snow storm was pretty crazy, we knew we were in the mountains, but we could barely see two feet in front of us! As we arrived in La Grave all we could see was the town and I already wanted to move there. It is a very quaint little village in the middle of the mountains with cute little bakeries, restaurants and bars. Keith lended us is home, which turned into 4 nights which was very nice of him. Since it had been dumping we knew that the next day was going to be a good ski day! We got up early so we could make first gondola car. La grave has one lift to the top that has a mid station, but climbs 7,000 vertical feet to the top. This makes for an amazingly long run, the main run has awesome views of Le Meije and huge glaciers. There is five gondola cars that are connected and trek up the mountain. In the morning we were in line with the hard core locals, it was like a powder frenzy in Jackson, but with a bunch of hard core frenchmen. (not a lot of women in La grave.) We were three American women getting into line and we sure got some looks, it was pretty funny. People were in harnesses and had their climbing gear ready to go, this made for an intimidating ski line. It was then a race to make the first five gondola cars, which we did. It was still a little socked in so it was hard to see where we were going, all I knew is we were surrounded by some big mountains. Keith and Joe took us to our first couloir of La grave called Le Banan. We were able to get first tracks, which brought huge smiles to all of our faces. I have always been obsessed with couloirs so today my dreams were coming true. It started to clear a bit and you could see the massiveness of the mountains around us. The rest of the day were were greeted by powder and endless coloirs one that had an awesome rappel in the middle. We skied five pretty aesthetic couloirs that day! Our guides who became our friends were amazing and we had a great time and even got some pretty good photos.
Joe let Jess and I tag along the last day we were there, which was a beautiful bluebird day and we were able to see the mountains. We skied two long about 4,000 vertical foot couloirs to the road, got to rappel switch (backwards) with our skis on, and got some pretty amazing faceshots skiing to the couloirs. Thanks Joe and Keith for making are trip to La grave one we will never forget. I definitely can not wait to go back. I really want to improve my ski mountaineering skills and learn more about glacial travel. What a beautiful place!

Aguiille Du Midi (Vallee Blanche)

Yesterday Jess, Angela and I headed up the Agui. Talk about one of the most exposed and beautiful places. It was a clear day and the views of Mont Blonc and the Chamonix valley were amazing. We got off the top tram and walked around the entire viewing area looking into Italy and possibly many other countries. Pretty amazing! We then put our skis on our packs and started the exposed walk down the rope to where we could put our skis on. It was probably about 15 below with the wind and it made the climb down even that more crazy. We then out our skis on and headed down the Valle Blanche which is the main place to ski down from the top of the Agui. The ski routes from there are endless and I would be really excited to go explore the ski mountaineering possibilities someday. We skied around glaciers and through ice, with amazing views of all the mountains. The top of the Agui is a 9,000 vertical foot climb from the valley floor, so we had a very long run down. We then skied to these really amazing ice caves that we were able to walk through. Ice and ski boots do not mix, but it made it exciting. We then climbed about 1000 steps and then took the train back to the valley floor! what a great day.

Chamonix Freeride World Tour Stop # 1

The face that we were given to compete on received about two feet of snow the day before our competition. Normally this would be an amazing thing to have happen before a competition. The only problem was that the half of the venue was south facing which made for icy conditions under the snow. I woke up very nervous for my first Freeride World Tour event. It was a little different scene then the Freeskiing World Tour and I was definitely the rookie, a woman and an American. I watched the first 13 guys go and they were being sluffed all over the venue because of the steepness and the snows ability to bond to the icy under layer. I watched the whole face that I was going to ski slide away to the icy layer underneath. I also watched some of the best guy skiers in the world crashing on small airs. It was definitely hard for me to keep to my game plan about skiing the south side, but I wanted to ski the steep face and I had been looking at it for five days! The other side was bottomless powder, but I could not seem to find anything that really interested me. Jess found something she liked over there and at the last minute changed her line to that area (a good cliff as well.) and had a blast and in the end it payed off for her because she won the comp! (which is so awesome totally happy for her.)

I headed up to the start, which was a very steep boot pack with the most amazing views in the world. I left the starting gate so excited to ski one of the more cooler lines I have skied in competition. I came on the the 50 degree face and sure enough it sluffed on me a little at the top of the face as I was standing on very icy snow. I was able to hold onto myself as heavy snow tried to knock me off my feet. (would not have been a good place to fall, so exposed.) I skied into my first air off the ramp with good direction as my skis left the ground. I landed very hard in the debris that had setup throughout the day. I accelerated into the soft snow and it was like hitting a cement wall, I tumbled got up and continued to ski. As I entered into my bottom air once again the snow broke lose as I took off and I landed flat and sat down for a moment as my snow fell on top of me and then skied out. Overall not a great showing, but was excited about my line and glad I did not ski something easy. I just could not believe how much snow I played in on my way down! Pretty bummed, but not a lot I can do I am in Chamonix and had an amazing experience. Hopefully better luck in Austria.

Skiing some amazing Pow in Chamonix! Comp tomorrow...

Today was one of the better days I have had all season! Only in Europe can you get onto the mountain at 12 and have untouched chest deep pow. I had some amazing faceshots today down into the village! The sun was just peaking through some clouds and as I was skiing I had amazing views of the Aguille du Midi and Mont Blanc. (pictured here) I do not know if you can beat that view and that steep of skiing anywhere.

Last night we had the bib draw for the competition in the middle of town, which was pretty awesome to be downtown Chamonix with you and your bib flashing up on the big screen. I drew bib 46. Girls go second and they alternate between snowboarder and skier. I hope the boys don't take all of our new snow! The face that we are skiing which is pictured here has received 2 feet of snow which is so exciting! Tomorrow is my first big mountain competition in europe. I am really excited about my line and just hope it goes well. It is supposed to be cold so I am excited I have my arcteryx clothing and warm hestra gloves. I also hope my legs are as strong as they feel, thanks to Rob at Mountain Athlete. Training at Jackson Hole hopefully has also given me some amazing confidence!

Chamonix and My First French Couloir!!!!

Today I awoke for my first full day in Chamonix in bluebird conditions! I looked out my window and saw just one side of the valley and my jaw dropped! The mountains were unbelievable. Jess and I were still a little jetlagged, but so excited to go skiing. We walked up to the Brevent, which is one of the many resorts in the Chamonix valley. We loaded the gondola and rose up out of the valley and into the most amazing cirque of mountains I think I have ever seen. Glaciers and ice everywhere, I had seen photos, but nothing had done them justice until I saw them in person. Steep spires and rock walls. We went first to scope the competition venue, which looks pretty awesome, but the snow conditions are not as good as we hoped. I found a few lines that jumped at me so that was comforting. We then cruised around for a couple hours in the sun with amazing views and long runs.

When we had come up the Gondola and loaded the tram Jess and I spotted this couloir across the way that looked amazing. The only problem is we could not see the entrance, we decided to go check it out on our last run down. We skied over to it and it did not seem to bad, except the entrance involved a little two foot mini air into a strait line into a 45 degree slope that went for a while. (you did not want to fall.) I went in first and hesitated for a little and then went for it, I came in a little hot and was a little scared for a moment but was able to get myself stopped. (The picture here is where I finally stopped and just the top of the couloir.) The snow the rest of the way down was actually really nice! From the top of the couloir to the valley floor was about 4500 vertical feet. The couloir itself was about 1500 ft! Did I ever say how much I love couloirs!!!! What an awesome day! Can not wait for the next adventure....

Rogers Pass

Rogers pass is one of the most amazing places I have ever been. After the competition five of us headed to the Wheeler hut on Rogers pass for three nights. The hut was only about a mile from the parking lot, but it felt like we were out in the middle of nowhere. We had the entire hut to ourselves, which was really fun. The avalanche danger was a little high, so I was not sure what we were going to be able to ski. The first day we skinned up through some really steep trees toward Glacier Crest. The temps had warmed up so much that there were tree bombs going off all around us, I have never seen anything like it. (just huge clumps of snow falling from the trees.) We decided for safety reasons to just ski back down in the vicinity of the skin track. It was the steepest tree skiing I had ever experienced. The snow was a little heavy, but I could only imagine how awesome it would be on a powder day. The next day we ventured into the Asulkan valley and had some clearer skies. I could not believe the terrain and amazing views of couloirs and mountains. Long runs that went for days. We skinned up to the Asulkan hut and skied the tree triangle, which was some nice powder! My goal is to hopefully go spend a week at the Asulkan hut, because the access to terrain is endless. We did not get to ski as much as I would have liked, but it was still and amazing time and great scouting mission. This couloir I have pictured is on my list for next time.

There is a first for everything.

So today did not go exactly how I was expecting, but a lot of times it never does. I decided I wanted to push myself a little out of my comfort zone today. I picked a line that had a little higher risk than usual. The last five competitions I have podiumed which is awesome, but i felt like I was ready to step it up just a little. I picked out a line that had two pretty exposed airs, the first one was only about five feet, but I had to shut it down so that I could make it directly fall line below me to a 20 foot ramp. I came out a little to hot and shot past my entrance. I was then positioned above a 50 foot cliff and had to hike out of my line. I have never had to do this before, so it was a great learning experience. I am bummed that I did not get to ski what I wanted to ski, but am excited to watch and root on the rest of the field! Revelstoke is amazing and the people are so accommodating and friendly.