Snow for the Euros.

[abraham]

Wow that's a very cool rock feature to ski under, with a great looking chute too!

And obviously you guys are just laying down in the second picture

[subtle plague]

looks about 35 degrees.

[peds]

Wow that's a very cool rock feature to ski under, with a great looking chute too!

And obviously you guys are just laying down in the second picture

Now you come to mention it, I do remember having a brief nap just below the summit.

You are right, it's such a cool rock feature, I'd love to come back on a super-cold day in January so we have a bit more time to play in the couloir, we were hard-up against it timewise today and had to get out before the rising temperatures made it too soupy. It'd be great to throw a rope over it and prussik up, to get some birds-eye-view photos of people skiing below.
Next year!

Here's a random picture from the internet showing the location of the line, the limestone cliff above the couloir was just ridiculous, towering hundreds of metres over us. But the good thing is, there's very little in the way of heating snow slopes above you to drop anything on your head in the rapidly-rising heat of a day like today...

[hafjell]

You are right, it's such a cool rock feature, I'd love to come back on a super-cold day in January so we have a bit more time to play in the couloir, we were hard-up against it timewise today and had to get out before the rising temperatures made it too soupy. It'd be great to throw a rope over it and prussik up, to get some birds-eye-view photos of people skiing below.
Next year!

Here's a random picture from the internet showing the location of the line, the limestone cliff above the couloir was just ridiculous, towering hundreds of metres over us. But the good thing is, there's very little in the way of heating snow slopes above you to drop anything on your head in the rapidly-rising heat of a day like today...[/IMG]

That’s a great photo for your guidebook.



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[subtle plague]

Woah 90cm new snow in the north. Over night. That's unexpected. Now they are closing everything as well...

[kungpow]

she goes!

[subtle plague]

Engelberg was fun but scary today. Nice pow but lots of windloading. The Laub went pretty big.
Triggered by a skier.

[Alkares]

Good times were had yesterday and today, headed to Flumserberg sat for some epic pillow popper pow, then headed to Airolo today for a solid 50+cms of settled pow and half price lift tickets . The headwall went quite large with a scary debris field, but Ravina was even scarier, the whole area I was skiing pow two weeks ago with a friend flushed out real good, I wonder if they'll open it back up before the season is over. Have fun and stay safe out there folks!

[peds]

^^ Wow, some scary pictures there. Things are definitely pretty scary avvy-wise at the moment, there are things lurking alarmingly close to home. A local hero was killed on the Pointe Alphonse Favre, one of the nicest ski tours in the Aiguilles Rouges, just earlier today. Incredibly sad. The man was a doctor who operated on Elizabeth Revol after her Nanga Parbat episode.

Luckily, I might be staying away from the worst of the danger for a short while.



Ah well. These things happen, and although I am still to take it to a doctor for a definitive checkup, it could definitely be a lot worse.

[bobinch]

Peds, sorry to hear about the knee. Your missions this season have been on a different level!!!

Good day over here on Sunday waiting for the Verbier Xtreme. Thought the fresh snow was stable but had a little unexpected excitement under Mont Gélé...

[Rossymcg]

^^ Wow, some scary pictures there. Things are definitely pretty scary avvy-wise at the moment, there are things lurking alarmingly close to home. A local hero was killed on the Pointe Alphonse Favre, one of the nicest ski tours in the Aiguilles Rouges, just earlier today. Incredibly sad. The man was a doctor who operated on Elizabeth Revol after her Nanga Parbat episode.

Luckily, I might be staying away from the worst of the danger for a short while.



Ah well. These things happen, and although I am still to take it to a doctor for a definitive checkup, it could definitely be a lot worse.

what's the verdict on the knee? shame if you're out for a while, i enjoy your stoke and the ULLR just keeps giving

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[alpinevibes]

Shit Peds, that sucks!! Hopefully it's a partial, not full; no surgery. I was pretty stoked on what you got up to with TJ, Teague and Mike, especially after finally coming to Chamonix and seeing the lines/possibilities with my own eyes.

Well, our most excellent Euro trip has come to an end and in we're back in Aspen after two great weeks in France and Italy. I've got 70GB of photos from the DSLR to sift through (and hopefully a TR to come), but the synopsis with some phone snaps:

- Skied GM on 3/18 with 40cm new up top. Great skiing, stunning to be up there and I got to demo some new sticks since our ski bags didn't arrive. Girls made it look good:





- La Tour/Vallorcine on 3/19 with some fog, but great sun breaks and awesome skiing on some hike-to couloirs:



- Went up the Midi on 3/20 with total bluebird; blew my mind... Found some incredible untracked pitches coming down the standard Valle Blanche highway. That nice 30-40deg rolling stretch down the Geant felt like [what I imagine] heli skiing [to be]. Phenomenal!

- On 3/21 we hired Cham local Serge Obert to guide us up to Beugeant or Belvedere for some steeps. The wind had hammered the SE aspects of the Rouges and multiple slides on the ascent turned us back (including one that took Serge for a short ride). We recollected and took an easy out by heading out to Col du Berard for some mellower lines and sunny beers down at Hotel de Buet. Serge was awesome; highly recommend.

Thursday morning, 3/22 we drove through the tunnel and met the motley crew of the Ski Sentinelle in Valgrisenche to skin into Refugio Bezzio for four nights. ~40 dudes and 4 females in the crew; three days of awesome touring above the refugio including some big lines, couloirs and great snow. Really cool to meet and ski with a diverse group of passionate people (11 nationalities in attendance) and pretty rad to spend some time out in the mountains with Bruno, Layla, Ross Hewitt, Fred Degoulet and others who were part of the event. A great concept, event and experience for us!

Ridgeline traverse below the looming face of Aiguille de la Grande Sassière:



Sunday Funday ski below the Grande Traversière:



And I got to throw some jump turns down a nice 48deg couloir...



After 9 days in ski boots we mellowed out, heading south in the Renault for a meandering drive from Torino/Briancon/LaGrave/Provence/Bordeaux over a few days with three final nights in Bordeaux drinking winez. No complaints; a truly amazing first ski trip to the Alps!

[buttahflake]

This thread has been kicking major ass, this season. Sorry about yer bender, Peds. Love the stuff you’ve been getting after.
Keep on, keeping on.

[geo039]

This thread has been kicking major ass, this season. Sorry about yer bender, Peds. Love the stuff you’ve been getting after.
Keep on, keeping on.

#bestthreadontgr

[peds]

Cheers dudes, I'll get you some more details when I have a minute (currently between making courgette puree for daughter's lunch and preventing the same from escaping out the door), but me and the two physios that I've seen (who both gave me a thorough prodding) disagree with the opinion of the doctor (who poked at me for no more than three minutes and listened for a vague noise that wasn't there), and we think it isn't as bad as it could be. The fact that I was able to self-rescue down 1000m of mountain gives me a pretty optimistic slant on the whole thing, and I can't see myself being off skis for more than a couple of weeks, and I definitely won't be missing out on the bulk of steep season, whatever happens. But we'll see how physio goes.

[alpinevibes]

the two physios that I've seen (who both gave me a thorough prodding) disagree with the opinion of the doctor (who poked at me for no more than three minutes and listened for a vague noise that wasn't there), and we think it isn't as bad as it could be.

Classic! My wife's a physio and this is the same situation she wrestles with, all to often, as some docs/orthos only seem to give a cursory check. 2nd/3rd+ opinions are wise!

[plugboots]

Pretty funny, I skied with Fred Degoulet 2 weeks ago on La Grave. Allez!

[Buster Highmen]

Cheers dudes, I'll get you some more details when I have a minute (currently between making courgette puree for daughter's lunch and preventing the same from escaping out the door), but me and the two physios that I've seen (who both gave me a thorough prodding) disagree with the opinion of the doctor (who poked at me for no more than three minutes and listened for a vague noise that wasn't there), and we think it isn't as bad as it could be. The fact that I was able to self-rescue down 1000m of mountain gives me a pretty optimistic slant on the whole thing, and I can't see myself being off skis for more than a couple of weeks, and I definitely won't be missing out on the bulk of steep season, whatever happens. But we'll see how physio goes.

[the_teo]

Spent the easter in Sunnmöre

[bobinch]

Amazing what a kid will do for a stripey doughnut....

[bobinch]

In the afternoon the sun came out...

In April the Bec des Rosses gets all the attention because of the Verbier Xtreme but Verbier ain’t no one trick pony! Spent the afternoon exploring the different faces of Mont Fort...

Started lookers left threading a route through the cliffs under the cables. This looked like a good chute...


But no way through the rocks in the crux so glad I went further across! Phew...


Back up and over to the other side and along the South ridge.. Was going to hike up to ski the big face skiers right but came across this beautiful loaded couloir!


It was steep at the top and sluffy so picked out a couple of islands of safety to let the sluff go and then went for it. What a ride!


Back up and some guys were making the bootpack up to the cross so followed them. Were they going to B52, North Face or maybe... the steep narrow shoot I’ve had my eye on 🤞

Alas it was the North Face but not a bad booby prize. Patric enjoying the blower pow 💥


And then a new straight line chute above Super Bowl


The off piste tracks out real fast in Verbier 😉


Love the backside 😍


So much fun and some new ideas in the pipeline...

The Bec is going to be tasty today...

[peds]

Classic! My wife's a physio and this is the same situation she wrestles with, all to often, as some docs/orthos only seem to give a cursory check. 2nd/3rd+ opinions are wise!

Amen, they seemed sceptical from the moment I mentioned that I had jogged there from the car park because it was raining a little, and as they were manipulating my leg every which way asking "Does this hurt? How about now? Not even now?", they just didn't seem to believe it could be a full tear. This makes me optimistic. They both said that it was important not to get my hopes up because there really is no way of knowing without seeing the MRI, but the initial treatment over the next few weeks is the same whatever the damage is. So that's the focus now, a few weeks of strength training, then straight back into it.

[rod9301]

Amen, they seemed sceptical from the moment I mentioned that I had jogged there from the car park because it was raining a little, and as they were manipulating my leg every which way asking "Does this hurt? How about now? Not even now?", they just didn't seem to believe it could be a full tear. This makes me optimistic. They both said that it was important not to get my hopes up because there really is no way of knowing without seeing the MRI, but the initial treatment over the next few weeks is the same whatever the damage is. So that's the focus now, a few weeks of strength training, then straight back into it.

You may want to consider using a compex for strengthening, you can build a lot of muscle and strength in a short period of time.

This is how I get strong for the ski and mountain bike season.

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[peds]

You may want to consider using a compex for strengthening, you can build a lot of muscle and strength in a short period of time.
This is how I get strong for the ski and mountain bike season.

Hmm, it's not really my sort of thing, to be honest... I've never considered anything like that. I often polish off the last few gobfuls in a bottle of my daughter's formula though, that's pretty tasty.
Can you recommend a product, and I'll do some reading on it...?

[rod9301]

I use compex elite, but there are many other ones.

Be prepared for muscle contractions harder than anything you've ever experienced, not like you can watch TV while you're doing it.

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