Backcountry
Report from Saturday, December 21, 2024
Bonjour.
I missed the first bus to Monte Bianco Skyway from Courmayeur.
I went home, brewed some espresso, had a bite, and then took the second bus, showing up to the station solo.
The place was empty—I was surprised, for a Saturday after decent snowfall the day before.
As I was having my morning espresso and cornetto (croissant), a ritual that gives Italian skiers powers, I saw a party of three lining up to take the next tram.
I was solo and didn’t want to be out in this terrain alone so I downed my coffee and went to shoot my shot.
They were friendly and gladly accepted my offer to tag along.
Edouard, Zian, Clement, and I then went to the Hellbronner Station at the top of Skyway, took the metal stairs down to the snow, and set off for the Entreves Shoulder.
The wind was vicious yesterday and turned the powdery slope at the top I had known from my two previous visits there last week to a variable, wind-chewed wasteland.
After an otherworldly scenic one-hour tour, we were at the bootpack to the shoulder.
A razor’s-edge rocky ridgeline with death exposure on either side awaited us.
Crampons and ice ax out, we set off the top.
It went smoothly today with little wind.
Last week was a different story.
At the top, we ro-sham-bo’d for who’d go first and I lost.
The French took that one.
I watched Edouard rip smooth, hero-pow down the first 250 meters (800 feet) to where the shoulder curved left.
I went next, opening up long, gorgeous powder turns with views of the Aosta Valley beneath me.
It was like skiing through Heaven’s gates.
The remaining 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) was variable, with wind-effected powder most of the way down.
Some it skied real good, other parts—not so much.
We were elated at the bottom and elected for another lap.
Why not? The day was still young.
We went for Chesso, directly underneath the tram station.
I skied it last week but from the tunnel entrance a few hundred meters down from the top station.
This time, we skied straight from Hellbronner; we lowered our skis one by one from the railing down to Zian who was on the snow below, then hopped the fence and transitioned to ski.
See, different countries can work together.
At the top, another skier warned us: “The snow is very, very icy,” he said with a thick Italian accent.
In unison, we all paused and listened in silence as he and his party dropped into the slope, hearing their edges scrape rudely against the ice.
It was surely icy. But not too bad.
We navigated the top section above rocky cliffs, making our way into the esophagus of the couloir.
Chesso is a beautiful, roughly 250-meter (800-foot) steep chute that splits a big chunk of rock directly in half like a laser beam.
It is steep.
The top part was firm but not icy.
The middle part grew firmer and harder, with us having to nail precision jump turns.
The final section before the apron was an icy mess that we had slide-slip through.
Then, once in the apron, we were rewarded with powder.
A treat for surviving.
We skied the variable powder snow down the remaining 1,000 meters or so (3,000 feet) in glorious sunshine with no one else around.
We took our sweet time, savoring each turn.
By the bottom, Clement was a bit “dry,” as Zian and Edouard joked, meaning that he was tired.
I was also a bit dry but stoke kept my RPMs firing at a high level.
Then it was time for a beer.
We cruised into Courmayeur, enjoyed some sandwiches, piadinas, great beer, and a shot of génépi—a strong, aromatic liquor that’s made from herbs that grow in the Alps above 2,500 meters.
It was delicious.
I don’t think we could have ended the day on a better note.
Now, a storm arrives in the Alps as I type this, forecast to gift us with over a meter of snow in the next few days…
Bolt the hatches—it’s going to be a wild one.
Conditions
It’s Canale del Cesso, not Chesso