Eagle Ski Club Leader's Training week, Monte Rosa ski area

I started writing this blog at the start of February!  Earlier this ski season I went on the Eagle Ski Club Leader's Training week.  It's a week long ski touring training week aimed at getting you ready to lead tours for the club.  This year we've been based in Brusson, just down the valley from Champoluc, in the Monte Rosa ski area (between Cervinia and Gressoney).  Despite the snow conditions being very poor for touring we have managed to learn lots and get some great ski tours in.  Below is an account of what we got up to.

Incredible views across the Alps

Sunday 24th January (Sunday shakedown day!)

Waking up to the reality of pretty bare mountains and being in a newly formed group of people, we planned for a piste day.  Staying on the pistes meant we could check out the abilities of our co members, but predominantly allowed us to see just how little snow there was in each of the valleys and wonder where on earth we would go ski touring!

Skiing the Eagle Couloir

As with all skiing plans, they sometimes don't quite got to plan when you see a line you'd like to ski!  On our way up to the Indren we spotted the Eagle couloir being skied and it looked very well filled in, and possibly the best off piste skiing we had seen yet.  That was it... we had time and the capability to do it, so we headed up the Indren lift and made our way down the hard wind blown snow into the couloir and down to the Refugio below.  From here we made our way up to point 2911m above the hut on skins and tested our abilities to pick out the best snow to ski on for the way back.

Transition time under a moody sky.

It was a great first day, and we covered lots of topics from decision making to skinning and skiing route choices, the 3 A's - aspect, angle, altitude, and much more.

Skiing down 'into the abyss' from the Col de Cascoccia

Monday 25th January - Antagnod - Col de Cascoccia

In addition to looking around us for the entirety of Sunday, this, combined with some local conditions information led us to a few more ideas of where we might be able to ski tour (or rather, where all of the local guides had taken their clients and we knew would be some snow!).  Leaving a car at St Jacques we drove to the quiet resort of Antagnod.  Here we took the chairlift to the top, traversed left and skinned 452m up to Col de Cascoccia (between the Facciabella and Bec de Nanna). We skied ok hardpack beside breakable slabby crusty stuff down a superb wide open gully and into mush and crappy snow lower down.  Skin track setting was looked into in more detail and some ropework.  It remained very hot and sunny.

It was such a lovely evening on Monday I couldn't resist going for a run above Brusson up to the Bringuez alpage!

Tuesday 26th January - Bettolina pass

After taking the ski lifts from St Jacques to the Col di Bettaforca we had a short skin to the Bettolina pass (3100m, just north of the more prominent col of the same name at 2900m).  Following an summer route we had a simple skin through incredible scenery, and the odd bit of excitement along the way.  This gave us further opportunities to discuss use of the rope, strategies while skinning downhill and route finding.

Skinning along the summer path

Don't fall... skinning downhill around an exposed corner!

The lack of snow cover made route finding particularly problematic today.  After some scouting we opted to walk down the rocks until a place where we could safely put our skis on.  The snow was surprisingly good in places, and the uncommitting nature of the route meant we even had time for a good lunch break!  The final section of the descent provided us with more route finding and a 'lovely' track to zigzag back down into St. Jacques.

Looking out beyond the Alps towards the Med

Wednesday 27th January - Indren to Alagna

Another great day of weather lay ahead of us.  Warming up by hooning across the entire ski area from St. Jacques to the Indren  we started to skin up the Indren glacier, hoping to find a suitable point to ski onto the Bors Glacier and continue towards Alagna.

Dancing above the Indren Glacier!

Great skinning over hardpack snow meant we arrived at what was clearly an abseil station in no time.  After much discussion we decided that the abseil wasn't worth the ski.  It was interesting to discuss abseiling and 'watching out' for members of the group that aren't confident mountaineers, and the difficulties of matching expectations with terrain, skills and risk.

Skiing back down

Weighing up our choices, we decided to ski down the classic off piste ski route past the old Indren station and below following the summer path (into the Olen river cwm?) under the line of the old lift.  The top section had a great gully that we cautiously skied down before opening up into a steeper area of incredible snow, oh to come back here on a powder day!  Passing by the other old lift station popped us back into the lift area. 

Skiing chalky snow beyond the gully system

Keeping time on our side we skied the pistes until we were firmly above the St Jacques/Champoluc valley.  Getting stuck here if a lift shut down in the wind would mean a very long taxi or skin.

Skiing down the gully system

Thursday 28th January - Cuneaz valley skills day

As the forecast wasn't great for today so we opted for a skills based (rather than touring based) day.  After a super warm up on lovely pistes we headed along the Cuneaz valley on skins.  First skill, we built a shovel up from a foot of powdery snow on the floor that was just about big enough for all of us to squeeze into.  This was quite a feat as normally a snow shelter is easier to build in sticky snow, and almost impossible to create out of powdery light snow.

It's not every day you practice abseiling down the piste!

Other topics covered included making Abalakov threads and getting them right each time, challenging kick turns inamongst a steep tree covered slope, and survival skiing back down!

Building a shovel up out of a foot of snow on the ground

Friday 29th January - Morge - Tete des Fra

The last day of the week, and probably the best skiing too.  After an hour's drive west down the Aosta valley towards Courmayeur we stopped at La Salle near Morgex and headed towards the road's end just North at Morge.  Skins on at the roadside, and we begun the 1100m skin towards the Tete des Fra.

Focused skinning in front of Mont Blanc

Upon arrival at the summit we could choose between powder or spring snow, what a luxury in January!  Powder it was and several incredible turns later we were back at the car.  What a great way to end the week.

Looking back down the skinning track from the Tete des Fra

Huge thanks must go to Rick Marchant, our guide, Alain Hosley for co-ordinating the week, the Eagle Ski Club for their enormous generosity in continuing to support aspiring leaders, and of course my fellow ski tourers on the week.  It was a superb week of learning and ski touring, and has given me lots to learn, think about, and put into practice.  Who wants to come touring with me next year?!