Over a metre of recent snow at 1500m, strong winds and a day of Foehn (so strong, warm wind) meant high avalanche danger in our region so we decided to leave the tops to another day. In fact looking at the hurricane blowing off the summits we would never have got to a “top”.
We headed up to the vicinity of the Terres Maudites underneath the Tete de Bostan (but not too close!).
I wanted to explore a new route, actually it didn’t turn out to be a new route. It wasn’t a route at all. The terrain was too tree covered which meant loads of bottomless snow, tree wells and awkward route choices!
Note the shovel in hand. We had to skin and dig at the same time, not something I have had to do before! Caspar had a very hard time, he fell into a couple of the tree wells and was not impressed with his lot. The shovel was used again to dig him out.
The decent was scenic, though of course there are no pictures. The snow had been well worked by the wind which added to the interest! We managed to find a short pitch of great powder near the bottom. The last half hour was spent on a transceiver refresher.
Click the map above so you know where to avoid!
Trip participants, Nick (www.urbanfit.co.uk, for it was him that took the photos), Ian, Chris and Caspar the dog.
