TR: Getting rad in massive Swiss Couloirs (posted a bit late, from Jan 26th 2013)

Living in Switzerland for the past 3 years, I've been up the Dents du Midi 3 times in the summer, and had thought it would be awesome to head up it in the winter to shred some of its massive couloirs. The mountain is actually a series of peaks along a massive ridge. The north face of the mountain is littered with 5 impressive couloirs.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-C.../s901/Topo.jpg



Although I had a few friends who really wanted to come ski it, only one was able to join me. We decided to go for the one on the right. The climb starts at 1200m through the trees. At about 1400m you poke out of the trees.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-H...i8/s902/16.jpg



We stopped at 1700m for a quick snack.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-L..._Y/s747/17.jpg



At 2200m we reached a plateau where the couloirs start. Notice the size of the three people in the apron. They skied the less steep shorter left branch, while we headed for the right branch.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-6...9g/s902/18.jpg



Halfway up the couloir and I’m stoked!

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-H..._A/s902/14.jpg



The climb continues. Funny too, because at this point it dawned on me that my two weeks back in Salt Lake City over the holidays, had made me forget how massive the alps really are.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-d...6uY/s902/5.jpg



We top out at 3200m, 2000m = 6500 ft above the car, soak in the much needed sun on this cold January day, get our gear ready, and then sit down for a nice picnic before the descent.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-V...8tE/s901/1.jpg



Dropping into awesome steep pow.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-8...To/s902/12.jpg



Good thing is was so cold. The rock on the Dents du Midi is so flaky that on warmer spring days this couloir can be filled with a lot of debris.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-C...PU/s747/11.jpg



This so beats the valley fog!

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-1...DiM/s747/3.jpg



And I love making jump turns the whole way down.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-t...RBk/s747/2.jpg



Approaching the steepest part at the midsection just above the ski wide choke.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-x...YPo/s747/9.jpg



Which was luckily bumpy and uneven.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-p...Ec/s902/10.jpg



Gregoire posing. 1000m down and a 1000m more to go!

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-5...fF0/s747/8.jpg



I’m pretty happy with that line.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-M...ExY/s747/6.jpg



Looks pretty aesthetic especially before sunset. Thanks Gregoire for an awesome day and for the shots!

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-B...LJg/s902/7.jpg

nice. I've always wondered where the lines were while i was driving past them.

very cool to finally see an orash111 TR! :)

Amazing TR. Way to get after it.

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using TGR Forums

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Originally Posted by Ripzalot

very cool to finally see an orash111 TR! :)

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It always takes so much longer to put these things together than I expect, so I tend not to make them. :D

Always looked at that line from the plane, sweet score!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Orash111

It always takes so much longer to put these things together than I expect, so I tend not to make them. :D

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yep same here. but proper TRs is what makes this forum for me. GoPro and POVs have killed the traditional TR.

looking forward to a belated Chamonix TR too. :)

Excellent. Thanks.

is that japanese!!?? ww!!!!!!!!!!

Awesome.

There's hardly anyone who did not look up to these lines in the past while just going by. Way to get it done, strong work.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Orash111

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-p...Ec/s902/10.jpg

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I like this one--people should take more shots from the side to show the steepness.

that's the good stuff

Thanks for posting! Love when people pick some lines, research, commit and post it.

Chapeau!

Ditto!!! Noice work!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by verbier61

Chapeau!

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by old goat

I like this one--people should take more shots from the side to show the steepness.

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Thanks. The biggest factor in this line is how narrow it is on the top 500m and how it funnels narrower and narrower till it reaches the ski wide choke in the middle, thereby giving it a slightly concave shape near the choke and making linking turns and holding an edge ever so much more challenging, especially on a snowboard. My fault for not skiing though. :rolleyes:

I went there a year before with two other buddies and with much less good conditions. Also a lot of rocks had flaked in the couloir, it being the beginning of april rather than january. We made it till about 250m from the top before we ran short of time and the weather started coming in. I had to switch from crampons to snowboard on the 50 degree pitch. Took forever and almost crapped myself. Much better conditions this time, ie. almost as good as it can get for the level of narrowness and steepness and not be an avalanche death trap at the same time.

rad, thanks for posting. cool that you got it in conditions like that. i've also looked up from the road and wondered....

Yeah buddy! Nice TR. Look forward to some future projects! :tongue:

6000+ ft lines, wowy wow. Great job!

That looks like a lot of work:eek:

Great line and nice TR.

Well played sir! Nice euro stoke there indeed.

gettin after it! super jongy question.. how do you insert full size into your posts? mine come up as thumbnails and it makes my TR's not so appealing.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-C.../s901/Topo.jpg

wow, looking at that picture without your drawings half of those wouldn't even register as ski descents to me.
great tr

camlax: Not my drawing, but taken from camptocamp.org, where you can find more about descents from this peak and a whole lot more ski tour and climbing routes in the alps. Here is the page for the descent I did: http://www.camptocamp.org/routes/452...s-couloir-nord It is filled in way more in winter than when this photo was taken.

Most of the stuff on the site is non english though, so either use google translate, or learn french, german, italian... :D


TREESS: You have to open a flickr account, or google account, upload the photos there and then use the url with [IMG]url[/IMG] to insert them. Took me a while to figure it out myself, hence why I had not TR's till now.