Couloir Poubelle, Aiguille du Midi

[Roo]

Watching Scot Schmidt ski this line in Blizzard of Aaahhs opened my eyes to a whole other world of skiing but I'm trying to remember anybody else skiing the chute and apart from a TR from Phil Ingle here quite a few years back, I'm drawing a blank.

It's such an obvious and inviting line that in this GoPro era, you'd think there would be some footage somewhere of someone skiing it. Every time I've looked at it, there's never been sufficient snow cover. It always seems to look like this.



Anybody got any experiences, pics or video?

[JayPowHound]

Wait a minute... this isn't a TR at all. Consider me disappointed. And hire a guide?

[atkinsonvt]

Umm ... I am no expert on Cham, but the Poubelle is off the Grands Montets.

[Roo]

Umm ... I am no expert on Cham

Well at least you got that bit right.

[Roo]

Wait a minute... this isn't a TR at all. Consider me disappointed.

Did I suggest it was? You want some Couloir Poubelle stoke? Guess why I started this thread? Me too.

[Hicks]

^^^^^^

So it's getting summer and you start getting bored ......

[hick]

Umm ... I am no expert on Cham, but the Poubelle is off the Grands Montets.

I always heard it reffered to as the Petite Poubelle with the Poubelle being off Grand Montets. We must of been there on a good year as we would hit the P. Poubelle on many laps off to other good stuff. Sorry Roo, no video, this was in the era of non digi cameras (at least for me!) and no go pros!

[Roo]

I know the Poubelle off the GM, but this is the iconic one for me due to Schmidt skiing it and then Plake almost taking Hattrup down it with him.

Good to hear that you managed to hit it. Such an aesthetic line and it looks so dramatic from the gallery corridors on the side of the mountain.

I have heard people say that a whole section of the couloir collapsed, leaving a cliff where there was once a steep slope and this renders it largely unskiable in all but the most massive snow years.

[Roo]

"It's too steep to be fucking around in there. I said to Plake "I don't want you behind me, there's a crevasse at the bottom!" - Mike Hattrup

Couloir Poubelle, Aiguille du Midi. Jan 2002

The view down from the top.

[lynchdogger]

If you was a bitch I'd call you a cock tease. Awaiting more stoke of a true classic line. Someday.

[Poop~Ghost]

Plake's beater save is fucking ALL TIME.

[f2f]

wondering who that bad_roo character was.

[subtle plague]

since the glacier has receded the line is rarely oin shape.

[powdherb]

I have the impression that this couloir and a lot of other s-facing couloirs have lost their perennial ice and snow. It's quite obvious in places like there and as well up on the Trient Glacier. I was looking at a pic from when the build the Trient hut and comparing it with today's snow/ice cover on the faces of the aiguilles grises and the copt couloir, and they barely resemble their state of the past.

That fact is that decreased snow pack isn't always only seen at hte tongue of glaciers, the thickness of the ice as well as its ability to fill couloirs has obviously been greatly impacted.

[lynchdogger]

I have the impression that this couloir and a lot of other s-facing couloirs have lost their perennial ice and snow. It's quite obvious in places like there and as well up on the Trient Glacier. I was looking at a pic from when the build the Trient hut and comparing it with today's snow/ice cover on the faces of the aiguilles grises and the copt couloir, and they barely resemble their state of the past.

That fact is that decreased snow pack isn't always only seen at hte tongue of glaciers, the thickness of the ice as well as its ability to fill couloirs has obviously been greatly impacted.

Sad truth.

Hey powdherb nice blog/forum. Enjoyed that and will visit again soon.

[Dam Skier]

A few years back, maybe six, I backed last on to the box with with another guy in a full face. Started talking to him on the way up and discovered it was Jonny Law and he was skiing in Cham between a Les Arcs comp and Verbier comp. I went out the back deck area and was able to watch him rip the top of it and come flying out the bottom. I have some video of it on a mini DV cassette somewhere I'll have to post up when I get some time. I think they went on to ski the Cosmique after that.

[BGnight]

Snowboarded it in late 90's in less than stellar conditions, but when you come out the bottom you don't have to go far and you get to drop Cosmiques too. Great double couloir run.

[Bronic]

Wait a minute... this isn't a TR at all. Consider me disappointed. And hire a guide?

He never said it was...

[SKIORFORGETIT]

Plake's beater save is fucking ALL TIME.

[lynchdogger]

He never said it was...

STFU Jong! You haven't earned your stripes to be calling people out yet! Nakid pics of girlfriend wife, mom, sister (of age only); etc. will clear you of your transgression. Hahahahaha!

[rip]

I was hoping for more pics as well..

I even buckled my breakfast seat belt.

[Scottish_Skier]

Yuo - As mentioned above there is 2 poubelles in Chamoninx.
This photo above on Aiguille Du Midi...
... and also the other one off Grand Montets on the pas de chevre side.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_08DttR2uLG...e+poubelle.JPG

Both poubelles actually feature in Blizzard of Aahs (though it took me about 10 years to work out that out!).
Never skied either of them.... but I am of the same 30 something generation that will always have a soft spot for Blizzard of Aahs and 210cm K2 Extremes.

During a pub conversation a swedish friend reckoned that Poubelle -> Rond / Cosmique -> MB tunnel is perhaps the finest lift accessed off piste adventure run in Europe ?
Though I guess it not often in condition these days.

[mogul5480]

^^^^^^^
This always confused me as well. After seeing Blizzard of Aaaahhs back in the day, I always thought Poubelle was off of l'Aiguille. But when I lived in France and was skiing Cham a bunch, my buddies kept referring to a different line off of TGM as "La Poubelle". It wasn't off the TGM tram, either, but rather it was that roped-off coulie just to the skiers left of the top of the Bochard gondola that requires a rappel to get into it.

I always thought the pas de chevres was skiers left from the top of the TGM tram, no?

[old goat]

^^^^^^^
This always confused me as well. After seeing Blizzard of Aaaahhs back in the day, I always thought Poubelle was off of l'Aiguille. But when I lived in France and was skiing Cham a bunch, my buddies kept referring to a different line off of TGM as "La Poubelle". It wasn't off the TGM tram, either, but rather it was that roped-off coulie just to the skiers left of the top of the Bochard gondola that requires a rappel to get into it.

I always thought the pas de chevres was skiers left from the top of the TGM tram, no?

I believe from the bottom of Poubelle you traverse left into Pas de Chevre somewhere in the middle of it. Apparently Pas de Chevres has not been skiable this year--it certainly wasn't last week. And if the Mer de Glace keeps dropping (and it will) I wonder how much longer Pas de Chevre will be skiable.

[mogul5480]

I believe from the bottom of Poubelle you traverse left into Pas de Chevre somewhere in the middle of it. Apparently Pas de Chevres has not been skiable this year--it certainly wasn't last week. And if the Mer de Glace keeps dropping (and it will) I wonder how much longer Pas de Chevre will be skiable.

I just looked at a map and think I get it. Pas de Chevre refers to the entire face separating the Argentiere/TGM ski area from the Mer de Glace glacier in the subsequent valley. This means that the Pas de Chevre is accessible both from the couloir I described above (off of Bochard) and from the top of the TGM tram. An earlier TR I found through Google confirms that the "Poubelle" is indeed the one off of Bochard I had been told of earlier, however where I went wrong is to think that the pas de chevre was only accessible from the top of the tram.