TR and introducing myself

[Gustav-John Hans]

Hello Maggots!

I have been following the forums for a while now and have finally decided to jump in and post! Hope you all go easy..

My career brought me to europe and to be more precise, the Alps. Lucky me! I'll follow this brief introduction with accounts of two recent outings and hope to contribute more in the future!

Last week the forecast was a bit iffy so I decided on a tour that I could break off whenever I needed or wanted to, some mild glacier travel that I was comfortable with solo and moderate slopes.

The route follows the valley for a rather long, flat way, making for monotonous skinning. I like that feeling you get on climbs like this though, just focussing on the swish swish of the skins and working your body. Anyway, no great pictures here seeing as I was solo and the sky was grey.

A look ahead with dramatic lighting. I was aiming for the col left of the glacier but didn't make it due to deteriorating conditions.


Broke out my whippet as it steepened.


Self timer shot at my high point.


Getting ready for the decent.


I went for a "the point" shot here, belatedly realizing that it's not much point (pun intended) if you can't see where I'm pointing.


Tried to get creative with the selftimer here, I wanted a shot with my tracks visible in front of the glacier.


As is so often the case, the weather in the valley was still perfectly fine and very warm. I rewarded myself with a stop for a gelato and enjoyed the view of local women strolling the town square dressed for spring, sorry no pictures.

Still with some energy to spare I couldn't resist the temptation to impress the other punters in the café by drytooling to the goods


The waiter obliged me by taking this picture.



This weekend we had clear nights and bluebird days, calling for an attempt at a summit I had been looking at for a while. The ascent is very technical and at first I wasn't sure about bringing along my a little less experienced friend Paul Panda but he did really well with some guidance and we are both still excited about our success. On to the pictures, I'm throwing together both of our shots. Pictures of me by PP and vice versa.

After an alpine start we hit the interesting part of the climb in bright morning light making for spectacular views on both sides of the narrow ridge.

Me leading the climb looking back at P. (Yes, that is a monoski he is carrying and yes, he is sponsored.)


P.'s view:


About three quarters of the way up the ridge, we had something of an "incident". Paul ventured a bit to far right over the corniced section and a substantial chunk of snow gave way under him, sending him into an almost crevasse like chasm between two sections of solid ground. I managed to dive in the opposite direction and eventually succeeded in setting up a dead man anchor so he could climb back up the rope. I can't believe we still took pictures in the middle of all that, funny how the mind works.

That rope was all that seperated us from desaster (I suppose my reflexes helped also.)


Paul snapped this one once I assured him he was on solid belay.


Still on shaky legs we started into the next stage of the ascent. The very aesthetic snow ridge leads to a slab of rock that rarely holds snow, particularly this late in the season. Rather than deal with mixed climbing on rotten snow and wet rock, we went for a more sun exposed crak that made for a good, steady climb.

P. looking up at me placing a friend.


Once we reached the prominent crack you can see above me in the last picture, I decided we would make better time on a short rope. P. in the crack:


He had some issues with his monoski hitting him in the back of the legs and hindering his climbing. This is an even greater problem when walking down hill, if anyone has suggestions on a pack with a better system to attach his ski, that would be very much appreicated.

He quickly got his camera out here while he was adjusting his pack.



Finally the summit was in view. We met another party who were already descending, they had left their skis at the base of the rock section and were going to descend a mellower route. We exchanged numbers for possible future trips together and they later sent me this pictures of P and me.



Self timer at the summit.


And then we finally took our skis off out packs and clicked in. We had witnessed some considerable wet snow activity not far away and paused for pictures only quite far down, safely out of harms way...



Trying to find a way around and old slid path while P waits above


Joining P at a safe spot lower down


P laying down tracks in the perfect corn on a mellow section almost in the valley


Ah yes, harvest season.



No shots of the walk out back to the car, it was hot and sweaty. Great day with a great partner.

Hope you enjoyed the TR!

-GJ

[ectreeskier11]

fucking classic.

[carpathian]

Awesome!

[Tunco]

I did indeed enjoy that TR. Keep them coming.

[mtskier]

creative, clever, funny.

instant TGR classic. a must read.

[enzo3366]

this thread ftw

[abraham]

Haha Nice! I stared at the first self timer picture for a while before reaching the conclusion that you must have been wearing some sort of duck suit or something. As I scrolled down if became more clear
I like the Summit shots

[AKbruin]

Weird, but I liked it. Good job.

[Zeppelinskier]

very cool, awesome pics man.

[meatdrink9]

Glad that worked out for P. That could have ended badly. You're truly a good friend.

[LightRanger]

Entertaining.

Beautiful area.

[OSECS]

Who doesn't love a panda and rubber duckie !!!?? CLASSIC

[CaddyDaddy77]

Some people have entirely too much time in very awesome locations. That was great!

[skier666]

It's nice to know that P made it without injury. That was a close call when the snow broke away under his paws.

[Misty_Fly]

took me some time to figure out what the flock was going on and then the penny dropped. excellent work sir... my amusement level/laughing volume was the humourous equivalent of a slow calp rising to thunderous applause. bravo!

[SwissBushwacker]

At first I was like, "wtf?".
And then I was like, "lol".
Now I'm like, "well played sir!".



But seriously, excellent first TR. I think you're gonna fit in here just fine . And whilst I'm being serious, where abouts were you?

[subtle plague]

artificial animal awesomeness!

[spankthepow]

Is that a new avalung model you're sporting?


Well played sirs.

[gpcharles]

retire from skiing and walk the earth. you got it. it's all down hill from here

[JayPowHound]

Me leading the climb looking back at P. (Yes, that is a monoski he is carrying and yes, he is sponsored.)

Classic!

[montanaskier]

GREAT TR

[Jack]

Beautiful photos,even more glorious terrain. Thank you for sharing.

[SchralphMacchio]

Man you euros like your exposure out there. Glad you made it out safe!

Paul is quite large so it will be hard to find a good pack with horizontal snowboard carry that might work for a monoski, but the bindings will be problematic. Why don't you get him to learn to snowboard so he can at least skin behind you in the trail with a splitboard without post-holing?

Very nice pictures, great terrain and nice tracks! Look at those huge crevasses next to your tracks ... good thing there was no fresh snow to hide them!

[HyRUPz]

C'est extreme no? Ce' bon le duck and ze bear!

[deepsquat]

You look funny.