Blog Archives
Gran Paradiso N Face
Two weeks ago myself and Luca went to try to ski the north face of the Gran Paradiso, there had been unstable weather there and we were hoping there would be fresh snow on the face. We went over on Saturday afternoon and walked up in the evening after it had stopped raining. The walk is a nice one but it was a bit hard work with tent sleeping bag ect as we were to tight to use the hut!
The next day we were in no rush to set off as we had seen there was no fresh snow on the face and we would have to wait for the afternoon sun to soften the snow. By the time we set off the first group of climbers were nearly at the top of the face. We made good time and reached the top around mid day. The snow conditions were just about OK to ski but the wind was around 50km per hour! Two Italian friends were also at the top and had been waiting since the morning to the wind to drop so they could ski. We waited with them for another 3 hours but it didn’t drop. Eventually as it was getting late we skied down the normal route as it was just not safe to ski the tricky snow conditions in such high winds.
The skiing turned out to be great fun with hard snow at the top, some wind-blown powder in the middle and spring snow lower down. There were many skiers heading up as we were walking down and with lower winds the next day the face probably saw a lot a descents.
The N Face seen from our bivi spot
Luca walking towards the climb after our lazy morning
Ben climbing the N face
Catch Up
I have not blogged since breaking my computer last summer, but i have done some fun things in that time. The hight lights were great climbing in the autumn on the Ginat and Modica-Noury and some recent ski touring. The start to my winter did not go well as i got frost bite in my toes climbing the Frendo-Ravanel. There has not been mush snow this year but i have had some good skiing in the Contamine couloir, the NE couloir of the Breche du Tacul, the Milieu glacier and the NE face of the Aiguille de l’Amoine.
- The Ginat on the N face of Les Droites
- Modica-Noury
- Frendo-Ravanel
- The Contamine couloir in yellow and the Spencer in red.
- Milieu Glacier
- NE couloir of the breche du Tacul
- Me at the top of the NE couloir of the Breche du Tacul.
- Me traversing into the NE couloir of the Breche du Tacul.
