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Jean Clotworthy, Lucy Bellerby and I completed a Haute Route from Verbier to Sass Fee from the 22^nd to 30^th of March in perfect weather.

Our fist day was assisted by the Verbier lift system taking us to 2890m.  Preparation for the “Swatch Freeride final” was overhead as helicopters slung large Swatch Watches to Bec de Rosses as we skinned over the Col de la Chaux, 2940 m.  A traverse and climb took us through the Col de Momin and onto a gradual glacial climb to the summit of Rosa Blanch 3336m.  From there is was a lovely downhill ski to the Prafleuri Hut 2932m.

From Prafleuri to the Dix Hut, 2928m is mostly a horizontal journey along Lac des Dix until the final climb to the hut.  Good tracks most of the way and enjoyable scenery made for easy travel although the final climbs were quite hot.

From Dix we could see the steady climb which tops out on Pigne d’Arolla (3790m) which was shared by ski tours’ and heliskiers and on such a lovely day sometimes did not even have standing room!  A quick steep ski down  brought us to the Vignettetes Hut, 3160 m.  The hut had been renovated nicely since my last visit and managed well with its full load of weekend skiers and those of us on the way to Zermatt.  Renovations are not enough to help with snoring but our earlier than the masses start helped both that and the foreseen crowds getting out of the door at the same time.  It also treated us to a lovely sunrise as we climbed up to Col du Colon, 3382m.

Two more cols: Brule (3213m) and Valpelline (3557m) then a 10 km lovely downhill ski past the Matterhorn took us to the Stafelalp pub/resturant for a wiessbier prior to the piste run into Zermatt.

We had a few off piste ski days and recovery days in Zermatt before heading to the

Monte Rosa Hut via the Breithorn (4159m) and the Schroarxtor Pass and Glacier.

From Monte Rosa Hut we has a long day to Britannia Hut over Stockhorn and Adler Pass with vies of the Matterhorn behind and 4000m peas of Sass in front.

The trip finished with a morning ski down the untouched groomed piste of Saas Fee and tea/coffee and apple strudel J.

Members:  Mike Glazebrook, Simon Beamish, Lucy Bellerby; Guides: Stefan Sporli and Gary Kuehn

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Stefan, Lucy, Mike and I drove from Chamonix to the town of Sulden in the Italian Tyrol.  Stelvio pass does not open until June so we had to go around through Bolzano – an unexpected large addition to our drive.  The next morning, we met Simon who had spent the last few days in Sulden.

 The tour began by taking three ski lifts to above 3000m.  We had strong north winds and white out so used the GPS on the ski field and to get to P. del Madriccio at 3123 m.  We descended the Madriccio Valley in poor visibility for the first 300m avoiding the fresh wind slab.  The skiing and visibility improved and we reached the Zufal Hutte 2265 m for a snack and beer prior to skinning up to Ref Martello, 2610 m.  It is a lovely hut with exceptionally comfortable beds, showers and great food.

 The following morning the sky was clear but the fresh northerly wind persisted.  We skinned up the Cevedale Glacier to Rif Casati (3254m) that had yet to open for the season.  Large pillows on deposited snow mid slope kept us away from some of the more attractive ski lines and we worked our way down a ridge and around into the valley leading to the Pizzini Hut (2700m) where Claudio, the guardian, had amazing torte, beer and hot chocolate awaiting.  A short ski down the valley and ski back up got us to the Branca Hut (2487m) where we would spend two nights.

A stable high-pressure system was established and we awoke to calm and clear conditions.  We skinned up the Forni Glacier towards Tresero hoping we could access areas that were sheltered from the last few days of strong winds and still held cold snow.  Our first peak of the trip provided the way as we traversed Cima Giacomo (3281m) from south to north.  “Antennas up” skiing through the upper reached where the wind slab was breakable until some gullies offered lovely dappled snow until the lower valley where we sidled around to end up with a short climb to the hut.

Again perfect weather greeted us the following day as we skinned up to Pizzini Hut eagerly awaiting Claudio’s lunch options.  Post lunch we climbed and skied Monte Cevedale while Mike stayed in the valley at his “private ski field”.  We had some great pitches of skiing and were back at the hut in perfect timing for a shower before dinner – prompting jokes from the others at the hut that we were on “Kiwi time”; skiing until dinner instead of finishing early afternoon!

The last few days had good melt freeze cycles on sunny slopes so we headed out for a corn snow circuit climbing to Col Pale Rosse (3370 m) and P. so di Zebru nord (3000m) and returned to the hut in “European time” for beer on the deck and a long sauna before dinner.

Our final day was a big one with an earlier start for Stefan, Lucy, Simon and I as we skinned and climbed up Konig Spitze/ L. Gran Zebru (3851m).  We carried skis and put them on just past some summit rocks and had some careful steep skiing and side slipping in good mountain ski conditions down to our gear stash where Mike had come up to join us.  Since again it was a warm sunny day our safe route back to Sulden had to access the shadier slopes back up to Ref Casati and then over Sulden Spitze (3376m)/Cima di Solda.  In beautiful evening light we were treated to amazing powder down to the piste and a ski run all to ourselves to the Hotel Bambi.  A warm shower and fantastic feast marked the end of a fantastic Ortler ski trip.

Spring has been early this March in Chamonix.  It helped stabilise the snowpack once things cooled off again.  Lucy and I got our ski legs and helped kit out Mike with touring gear for our Ortlier trip.

Our practice play days took us to the back country aorund Le Tour, behind Brevant, the Valley Blanch and off of the Gran Montet.

On 25th January at 9 am Phil Doole, Andrew Finnigan and myself were on the West Peak of the Minaretes, already having summited the East Peak.  We bagan our climb on the 24th and camped in perfect conditions.  Our descent went smoothly and we packed up camp and headed to Centenial Hut.  The west coast had thick cloud and the following day had a windy, wet, wind, cold and snowy storm that kept us inside for the day.  The following day was perfect in the morning so we flew out and spent the afternoon ice climbing on the Franz Joseph Glacier.

That wraps up my January of guiding which was spent around the Ball Pass and Upper Tasman Glacier areas.

Now I'm off to Tasmania rock climbing and Europe, Morocco and Turkey for ski touring.

Lucy Bellerby and I flew into Turners Biv in the Darrens on Christmas Eve.  We were treated to a great sunset and on Christmas climbed Tutuko's SE Ridge.  It is pretty long and winding and has great rock in an amazing setting. We camped both nights at the bottom of the first rock step.

A long term goal was completed!  On Saturday at 11:30 am Jean respectfully stood just below the summit of Mount Cook – and the real high summit, which even though just 70 m further than where many stop, sometimes takes 30-50 minutes more due to the steep exposed terrain.  Anthea, Jean and I left Plateau 1 am and had a planned bivvy on the descent to avoid the Linda Glacier in the heat of day.  We returned to Plateau Hut for breakfast Sunday morning.

 

These guys are experienced Australian rock climbers and lead well on multi pitch trad routes.  They wanted and instruction week to transitions to alpine snow and ice routes.  We flew into Pioneer the morning of November 29^th and the same day climbed Triad learning about glacier travel, snow anchors, pitching, climbing techniques, simul climbing and rapelling.  We climber Haidinger and Lendenfeld in the next two days and looked at how you plan a climb with timing, weather, navigation.  Three days of bad weather was forecast so I departed and in the next week Al, Tim and Lloyd practiced on Toilet Peak, dug snow caves, practiced crevasse rescue and climbed Christy and the Minarettes – WELL DONE!

 

 

Grant and I climbed every day  22-27^th November but the weather was shocking and many days the weather gap was only 3-4 hours.  We were at Tasman Saddle for 3 days and then climbed in the Remarkables and on some Wanaka rock.

 

The snow came in July and it was a cold winter so the snow lasted well in low elevations and enabled us to ski in new and different areas early on.  Generally the weather was good, cool, with some very strong wind events scouring ridges and the snow pack was stable. 

I got out on skis 73 days, skied 12 ski peaks new to me, taught four avalanche courses, had a few weeks in Methven heliski guiding and most importantly had great companions for the adventures. Thanks everyone !

 The pictures are from   the following locations J:  Remarkables, Crown range, Mt Roy & Alpha, Pisa Range, Two Thumbs, Crown Peak, Cardrona and Treble Cone Backcountry, Mount Saint Mary, Mount Stafford, Mt Rolleston, Temple Basin, Arrowsmith & Ragged Mountains, Garvie Mountains, Mt Melina, Mt Barth, Mt Barff, Mt French, Aspiring, Cooper, Mt Olympus, Triad, Grey Peak, Aylmer, Walter, Hamilton, and Ruapehu (that N island gem).

 

After re grouping in Talkeetna (sorting sat phones and food caches) we were ready to go on a Saturday, the day the train runs north.  So onto the train with the locals and their, building supplies, provisions and rifles.  The train stopped as requested and would be met by a snow machine with occasionally a cabin, or “town hall” (see picture) in sight.  We did the same at a stop called Colorado, named in relation to the old and current gold mines in the vicinity.   No snow machines met us but we were luck to have their packed track to travel on for that afternoon.  We only saw a few “sledders” returning that afternoon since most were far east at the Arctic Man race/party… where a small AK town becomes the third largest population center in AK for a weekend.

We spent the next five days skiing in over Anderson Pass to McGonigal Pass as a 10 day high pressure moved in.   Even thought the last storm was large, the north side of the range is usually in a rain (snow) shadow, so we only had 20 cm of new snow. It was not effected by wind which we suspect is unusual.

We had two ski days in the McGonigal Pass area then began our trip up the Brooks Glacier to ski Silverthrone, 13219 ft, 4029 m, # 23 Highest Peak in AK, and in Denali National Park only topped by Denali, Foraker and Hunter.  From an 8000 ft camp on the Brooks Glacier we climbed Silverthrone on May 18^th.  We found good ski conditions the whole way….  we could ski it as opposed to the hard blue AK ice we saw on many of the neighboring peaks.  It was a 6 hour ascent and one hour down.  The snow from 12000 ft down was so good that Felix and I did a second lap on that section the following day! 

That also ended the fine good weather. Although for the rest of the trip the pressure stayed low we did not get much new snow, but it was windy. On the way back up to Anderson pass we were just able to crest the moraine wall, and Eric, with 50 years tramping and climbing experience in NZ to exclaimed it was the first time he’d been knocked over and had to crawl into the wind!  Our plan was to ski peaks around Anderson Pass.  We could not take advantage of the amazing ski terrain there but manages three shorter descents in flat light and low cloud. 

In two days we were back at the road.  The second day had an alpine start taking advantage of the freeze.  The Chilitna was flowing but there were still snow bridges to cross in most areas.

Within minutes we has hitched a ride with “Indian Pete”.  He stated he never sees anyone hitching here, and “I drive fast, you’ll get used to it”.  We did, he was great, and we were back in Talkeetna in 2.5 hours!

Now back in Washington, winter really has yet to give way to spring in the mountains so we are heading to red rocks to climb and still hope to get a mountain ski in on our return.