TR 13 April ’07 A Grand Day Out

**Idris** · 04-15-2007, 07:05 AM

TR 13 April ’07 A Grand Day Out

Glacier du Grands via col du Passon.

25+km (15 + miles) of distance travelled, 2050m (6765ft) of lift access, 2775m (9157ft)
of decent and 865m (2854ft) of climbing

After a bit of a messed up start to the day due to miss communication in 3 languages and dealing with 5 nationalities we made the 915 téléphérique rather than first bin.

From the top of the Grand Montets down semi melted refrozen yuck with ice chunks in it to the Argentiere Glacier. Across the glacier. Up the rising
traverse on a firm refrozen skin track. Just soft enough to get a good grip without ski crampons. A quick scramble up the short couloir to the Col du Passon.

Looking across the Glacier du Tour. It’s almost flat before a short climb to the
Col du Midi des Grands. Skins on or off? The first 100m or so is downhill, so off. At the beginning of the traverse across not all the group are convinced. I just unclip my heals (step out, set to tour and step back in because I’m on Dynafits and everyone else is on Fritschi) and off I go. I got all the way across, just couldn’t start to climb. The rest of the group gave up and switched to skins in dribs and drabs on their way across.

The big white expanse of the glacier du Tour

We skinned up all bet the last 50m (150ft). This was the sting in the tail.
Only 45 degrees but loose rubble and a sliver of snow and ice up the edge. I headed off up having not put my crampons on. Kept trying to move out on the rouble and ended up back on the snow. Apart from a few steps it was fine just kicking steps. But those few steps I really wanted my crampons on.

Looking back across the Glacier du Tour from the col du Midi des Grands, the unpleasant scramble at my feet. I am standing in Switzerland ,looking back into France

Lunch at the col. No more climbing from here on

The days cast (L to R) – Johan, Rufus, Yosiko, Jonno, Magnus, Martin and John

To begin with after a few meters of transformed snow, we found week old powder. Almost knee deep in places. As we got further down this changed to mashed potatoes and finally soup. The main slope felt like it was going on forever. With a pitch of 25-45 degrees and for 1500m (5000ft) I understand why people pay to heli this. At the end of the main slope we entered a wide ravine taking us to the main Trient valley. This place was a little bit unnerving for me. With tired legs the group wasn’t fast in the soup. Being late in the afternoon the snow was starting to slither down the hill by itself and we are standing in a huge terrain trap. We got out in one piece, just.

Taken from Pointe Rond, visible is about 1700m (5600ft) of the decent. The
Aiguille du Tour is the high point to the left (south) of our route.

At the end of the gully the snow ran out. From here it was over an hours hike
down to the Village of Trient. I ditched my skis at the edge of town and headed off solo. 17km of hitchhiking. In two parts with lifts from two different nationalities I was back in Argentiere and time to drive back to Trient. The rest of the group had retrieved my skis and were now resting in the Pub..