Larry Goldie
Submitted by Larry Goldie on

It was a strange winter in the Alps.  After starting off with record breaking snowfall, the faucet was promptly shut off in mid February and started a six week drought until early April.  When we began our trip in Mid April the weather pattern had shifted back to more typical  of mid winter, yielding snow and clouds nearly every day of our trip.  This year Larry was joined by Methow locals Paul Jennings, Mac Shelton, John Kirner and his son Steve, from SLC, UT.

 While we normally begin the trip with a training day in the Vallee Blanche, we chose to head up to the top of the Grand Montets ski area to avoid skiing through crevasses with such poor visibility.  Here Paul, Mac and John stand on the side of the piste as we work our way down at the end of the day.

 With more snow and a poor weather forecast, we took a taxi and began the trip from Verbier.  After juggling many hut reservations, we headed up to the Mt Fort hut for the night.

 For a hut that sleeps at least 70 people, we had the hut to ourselves.  Just before dinner three other skiers arrived making for a total of 8 people in the hut that night!

 After dragging our feet the next morning we headed out with limited visibility.  This is a view of our first descent after reaching our initial col above the hut.

 The visibility held enough for us to enjoy a few good turns down from the col.

 At the next col, we lost visibility completely.

 Thank goodness for GPS!  While it did get us to the hut, not seeing took nearly all of the fun out of the several thousand foot descent.

The terrain right above the hut is complex and difficult to manage in poor visibility.  Since we did have concerns about avalanche hazard, we took it slowly and spend nearly an hour within several hundred meters of the hut, trying to locate it in the murk.  I had to pull out many tricks to keep us from wandering off of a cliff on this one - here I am "fly fishing" to see what ground lay ahead.

   Finally we got a break and made our way there, being the first ones to arrive.  We hadnt seen another person all day - almost unheard of on the Haute route!  About an hour later, 60+ people arrived, thankful for having a set of tracks to follow!

 The next day dawned clear and wound up being one of the nicest days of our trip.

 In near perfect conditions, we made the traverse above the Lac des Dix in under 90 minutes - the fastest I have ever crossed that section.

 After arriving at the hut with time to spare, we decided to take advantage of the weather and get some skiing in while the sun was out.  Mac decided to enjoy the Apres ski scene on the deck of the hut, John dropped a glove on the uptrack and had to turn back early, so it was just Steve, Paul and I that summitted La Luette.  With all of the recent snow, we had fantastic steep powder skiing right off of the summit.  Mt Blanc du Cheilon rises in the background.

 The Dix hut with its spectacular position among the terrain.

 We attempted to climb Mt Blanc de Cheilon the next day, but once again, the weather turned on us.  We made it to the first col and opted not to drop onto the heavily crevassed glacier with visibility dropping.

 We opted instead to return to La Luette to enjoy more of the great skiing we had the day before.  Here John spoons my tracks a few pitches below the summit.

 One of the best things about the Dix hut is returning early in the afternoon for Rosti!  This traditional Swiss dish of fried potatoes, cheese, ham and eggs would make the most amazing breakfast for us Americans, but its only available during the midday hours.

 The next day we had hoped to climb over the Pigne de Arolla, though once again, the weather shut us down.  We opted for the lower route via the "Pas des Chevre" or "Pass of the Goats".  Here Steve climbs over the 70' high ladders that give the pass its name.

 After arriving at the Vignettes hut in time for lunch, Paul, Steve and I thought we would head out for some powder skiing on the glacier below the hut. The visibility wasnt great, though the snow was deep and light.

 After about 800 vertical feet, we decided to head back up and when Steve cursed loudly, we all knew what had happened.  His skins were sitting safe and sound in the drying room of the hut.  A bit of improvisation got us back to the hut, though Steve worked harder than the rest of us to get back up there.

 Our final day to make it to Zermatt was again stormy and snowing hard when we awoke.  We opted to drop down to Arolla to taxi over to Zermatt.  Being the first group to make this decision, we had over 3000' of untracked powder right down to the valley floor.

 We waited for our taxi in a coffee shop in Arolla, enjoying some fine coffee while lamenting at our poor weather luck.

 The sign was symbolic of our trip in the Alps - "good bye - thank you".  The storm continued to rage up high....

 Our final day in Zermatt dawned much clearer than forecast and we took advantage of by heading straight up to the ski lifts.  Here Mac poses in front of the Matterhorn.

 For our one day of redemption, we chose to ski the Shwarxtor glacier, barely visible here in red.  Also know as the "Vallee Blanche on steroids", this is an amazing glacial descent beginning at the top of the Kliene Matterhorn lift of the Zermatt ski complex.

 The route takes skiers right through several impressive icefalls.  Here Mac skis across a snowbridge over a gaping crevasse.

 While I have skied this route many times, never have I had as good of conditions as we had this day.  Blue skies and powder snow made this a memorable descent and just a little taste of redemtion on a challenging trip.

 We were thankful to be on the early end of the day, as we rarely had to cross tracks during the entire, dramatic descent.

 The snout of the glacier also offers some amazing glacial formations.  Here we stand at mouth of a huge ice cave.

 Mac and Steve skied right though the cave.

 Exiting the bottom of the glacier consisted of some whoop de doos, and roller coaster features.  One of which was right above a pool of ice cold glacial melt water.  Everyone negotiated it safely and we enjoyed skiing right back into Zermatt at the end of the tour.  Thanks to everyone for keeping such positive attitudes and working hard on a trip where the weather just wouldnt cooperate.  It is a testament to our crew that despite all of the challenges thrown at us, we still had a great time!

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