February 3, 2007

This report written by Kevin after his day with part of our crew.

Today a small group went on a Via Ferrata adventure just outside of Briacon.  This Via Ferrata consists of class 5 rock climbing and scrambling up sheer cliffs overlooking Briancon.  The climb is aided by fixed rungs and rebar embedded in the rock surface and is protected by a cable that runs the length of the climb.  A short 15 minute hike took us to the base of the climb and after gearing up and a little instruction, we set off for the summit.  The sun was beating down on us once again today, and the group was giddy with enthusiasm.  We reached the summit after 2 hours of climbing and numerous patterns of clipping and unclipping.  I think the expressions on the kid's faces sum up the day they had.  For some it may have even been the highlight of the trip so far.

We are still finding powder, more than 10 days after the storm. That's the great thing about this area, there are so many hidden little stashes that it's easy to find great skiing so long after the last significant snowfall. We have been doing a variety of activities during the last few days. We have spent time over at a ski area called Les Deux Alpes, which happens to share a summit ridge with La Grave. That fact means that we can ski over to Deux Alpes, and use our La Grave tickets on the upper mountain. This is a huge factory style Euro ski area, with thousands of skiers per day (sometimes tens of thousands). There are many groomed slopes and the requisite terrain parks of course. It's a nice mix for the kids to see the other side.

Yesterday we took the kids to Montgenevre. This is an area that straddles the border of Italy and France. Really it's just one large area, but technically you have the ski area of Montgenevre on the French side and Claviere on the Italian side. However, this large ski hill is just two of seven in this region that collectively are called the Via Latea (the milky way in Italian). You can actually ski from area to area. It's all very wonderfully Euro.

The pics you see today are a collection from all these days.

Miles, five students, and I went on a tour; our destination being the summit of Pic Blanc. A 9000 ft peak located just over the Col Latauret. We left the van at 10:30 under amazing blue skies, the kind you see in movies. The sun was beating down and our hiking attire consisted of tee shirts and sunglasses. I think we would all have been in Hawaiian shirts, straw hats and shorts if we had them. The climb took us up a nice rolling valley which lead us to the last pitch that was wind blown and steep. At this point we said goodbye to a few who had run out of gas; they would watch the rest of us summit and then would join us on the descent. After four and a half hours we reached the summit and it was amazing and beautiful. The 360-degree view was inspiring and we all sat with no wind and blazing blue skies. We exchanged high fives, took some photos, snacked and got ready for the descent. The descent provided some nice turns. We met up with the rest of the group and made fresh turns in a cream cheese-like powder snow, spring conditions! We made it back to the van and looked back at the massive peak we just descended and said, “Yup, that was a good day!’

Boucher

Yesterday a crew of kids skied to La Berarde. This is one valley over from St. Christophe. It's a completely different kind of tour as there are hours of uphill skinning. It's an amazing tour (as you can tell from the pictures) because you drop off the backside of La Grave and are smack dab in the heart of some of the biggest peaks in the Parc des Ecrins. So, we dropped off the south face and skied about 1,000 meters, then traversed east for about 1 km before we put our skins on. Once skinned up we toured up and over the Glacier de la Selle, to the bottom of the breche de Rateau. To get over the breche (a sharp pass) we had to take our skis off and boot pack up, with one really hard rock climbing move in the middle. Then we skied a 50 degree face off the backside for about 100 meters, then 1700 meters of extremely variable snow. Our guide Miles called the skiing "challenging"; I would call it "survival skiing". This was followed by a gliding descent for about an hour, through the most beautiful vall ey, surrounded by huge peaks. Then we arrived at La Berarde. This is a quaint little village in a dead end valley up past St. Christophe. One of the things that I love about this village is that the road is not plowed during the winter, but this does not keep some folks from living there year round and walking and skiing their supplies in. And this is about a 10 km trip one way. We reached La Berarde at about 6:00 pm (the tour went much slower than predicted due to the poor snow conditions) and we had a thin hope that Kevin would have been able to drive in. Unfortunately he could not, so as the moon rose we started to ski/run/hike out, which took us about 70 minutes or so. It was an amazing night with the moon casting shadows and its rays glinting off the hoar frost on the surface of the snow. We finally got to the vans at 7:30 under the moonlight (except for a few spooky dark tunnels). Needless to say, this crew of kids slept well last night.

Cheers,

Sam

The kids who took a rest, also took a trip over the pass to a town called Briancon. Briancon is about 35 minutes from La Grave, over a pass called the Col du Latauret. This is an old walled city that was once one of the most prominent trading towns in Europe as it sits at the junction of three valleys. One valley comes from continental europe, one comes from the Meditteranean, and one from coastal France. It's neat little village now, sequestered amongst the fortifications of the old walled city.

Cheers,

Sam

Off the backside of La Grave is the largest national park in France, the Parc des Ecrins. It’s chock full of glaciers and jagged peaks. As you can tell from the photos it’s a vertical world. The first valley south of us is the St. Christophe valley, so named for the town that sits at the mouth. To accomplish this run you must first ride all the lifts to the top of the mountain, then hike a little ways over the crest of the ridgeline and you are then staring down 5,000 vertical feet of pure bliss. For those Sugarloafers out there, this slope is akin to 10 Upper Gondi Line’s stacked on top of each other, and in this case, slathered with 1-2 feet of gorgeous powder. We skied this in 4 pitches and each one was nicer than the former. The traverse out is through this amazing winter wonderland with steep faces on both sides with frozen waterfalls, of which many were being climbed by local ice climbers.

The rest of the group skied the front face of La Grave and got both the Bannane and Patou couloirs under their belts.

Cheers,

Sam

We ended up with 2 feet of snow from 1700 meters to 2400 and as much as 3 feet above that. All of a sudden we could ski about 100% more terrain than we could yesterday!

Enjoy!

Cheers,

Sam

That’s the exciting news. Now for the mundane; we are all settled in to our new digs on top of the hill. As soon as I get some clear weather I will take some pics of the view, it’s outrageous. Karen and Joost are our hosts for the next 3 weeks and they could not be nicer. They are both Scandinavian and have partnered up to run this hotel together. La Chaumine is the name of the lodge and it’s as true a skier’s hotel as anything that exists. It’s basic and cozy with little rooms and a big view, and of course it sits only minutes from the base of a world class ski destination. Couldn’t ask for anything more.

Yesterday we got up on the hill at about 10:00 am and introduced all the new kids to their first run at La Grave. Everyone did terrific! At 1:00 we ducked into one of the on mountain refuges for lunch. These eateries are on the hill but are not owned or operated by the ski area. They are run by locals and it’s like having your mom cook for you. Steak and frites was the meal of the day, followed by a crepe drizzled with chocolate. Ok, it’s like having your mom cook for you if she were French. After lunch we spent about two hours working on avalanche beacon drills and getting the kids heads back into the mindset of what to do if we get hit by a slide. Again, everyone did well.

Then it was back to La Chaumine, where everyone got cleaned up, and had a half hour of down time. At 6:00 pm Miles (our guide) showed up and spent another 90 minutes of classroom time on the basics of avalanche safety. At 7:30 we started dinner and by 9:00 the kids were saying their goodnights.

This morning we awoke to about 3 cm of snow and it was just starting to come down at this altitude of 1750 meters. We spent an hour of study time and then headed up on the hill. When we arrived at 3200 meters, we found about 25 cm waiting for us, and almost zero visibility due to the pounding snow. We ventured out for about 3 runs, and after we sufficiently “antiqued” our skis on the many rocks hidden just under the surface we decided to call it a day, head back to the hotel and get a head start on the homework. If the weather predictions are right we may not be doing work for a few days!

Cheers,

Sam

Cheers,

Sam