a faint memory of ice

 

During the past week of vacations in Chamonix, I spent some days down-hill skiing (which I find increasingly boring!), X-country skiing (way better), swimming (indoors!) and running, but the highlight (and the number one reason for going there!) was an ice cascade climb with a local guide, Sylvain (from the mythical Compagnie des Guides de Chamonix). There were very options due to the avalanche high risk and Sylvain picked a route called Déferlante at the top of Les Grands Montets cabin stop and next to the end of a small icefield, Glacier d’Argentière. We went there quite early to catch the first cabin up, along a whole horde of badasss skiers and snowboarders, and reached the top of the route by foot first, a wee bit after 9 pm. A second guide and a client appeared before we were ready to abseil down, and two more groups would appear later. On touring skis.

Inventaire d’hiver à la Prévert

Back from our ski trip, a nonsensical summary à la Prévert:

twice nine hour drive and a dead car battery,
one hour for putting chains on and five minutes to take them off,
seven saucissons for 20 euros and 30 euros for a kilo of Beaufort,three days of big white-out and one sunny afternoon,
-13 on the first day, +13 two days later,
five runs on the super-G slope every early morning,
a two-hour off-piste course and my first attempt at skating since 1988,
ten seconds stuck in the fog wrongly thinking I was still moving,
and a fraction of a second to face the opposite,

one broken snowboard and dozens of falls,
an entire Pasaalina and a few pages of Banks,
great packed snow and equally great powdery snow,
lots of laughs and bitter cold on the ski-lift,…