Report from February 16, 2025

Skyway Monte Bianco is the Lamborghini of ski lifts.

I’ve never seen a ski lift so fancy in architecture, style, design, service, etiquette, and cleanliness.

Yesterday was my second day here in Italy. 

Martin & Marco planned to go back up the Skyway Monte Bianco and ski the legendary Marbrée Couloir.

I was nervous.

I still felt jet lagged and didn’t quite have my feet under me.

The legendary guide Ross Hewitt was going to join us as well as two local Italian rippers named Eduardo & Francesco.

Needless to say, I was intimidated and scared.

As we rose up the Skyway I asked Ross to describe the line and especially the entrance.

He casually spoke of the spicy shoulder entrance and the 45º ramp to get down to the chute, then said the chute itself was a reasonable angle.

Admittedly, I felt better after absorbing the information via his speakeasy Scottish accent.

By the time we stepped off the tram, I was feeling calm.

Then we stepped out onto the deck where the 14,000′ peaks reinserted a lump in my throat.

Moving helped.

We skinned across the Col di Gigante then cramponed up to the eastern entrance of the Marbrée.

There wasn’t much room to move nor put on skis on that tippy point.

Ross arrived first and was already comfortably in skis as we arrived.

I used my crampons to kick in a platform for putting my skis on.

It was tiny and precarious and it took a while to gather the courage to go through with clicking in.

One at a time, never taking one hand off the ski…

It was even trickier with the humans all around me feeling off-balance whilst trying to put their skis on too.

Ross & Marco dropped first and were gone in a heartbeat.

I was descending the ridge with Eduardo when something flashed in front of me.

It was one of Francesco’s skis!

“Cazzo!”

Dude had lost both of his skis while putting them on and one almost put a hole in me.

First close call of the day…

Somehow both of his skis stuck in the snow and he was able to get them back and continue on.

I continued to pick my way down the narrow ridge with a 1,000+ foot drop on the right and the overly steep face to the left.

The ridge gave way to a nose which led to the top of the run.

It was clear from Ross & Marco’s tracks that the skiing was rough right until the start of the “chute” (feels more like a huge undulating face) where the snow appeared to be powder judging by the huge arcing turns they had made.

I dropped third and followed Marco’s line to the right side which put us over a 500′ cliff that you could ski above for 20 turns or so before you had to cut left back into the chute.

I was feeling bold so I went even further out above the cliff than Marco but after about 9 turns I lost my nerve, cut left and skied further left than Marco’s tracks.

The skiing was good.

The steep face held recrystallized snow that exploded at the lightest touch.

I carved and slashed and breathed my way down the face and back into the chute.

The snow in the chute was refrozen slush and skied very differently.

From there on, as we descended the 6,600 vertical foot run, the snow continued to deteriorate until it was a crusty funk.

Still fun, though, as the majority of it was hot powder that was easily skiable.

As I passed the tongue of the glacier I hit a piece of ice super hard with my right ski.

It sent me into a ballerina pose that I quickly recovered from while gaining straight-line speed.

I remember thinking, “Damn, I handled that like a boss!” just as I realized that the heel of my right ski had come untethered during the impact.

I tried to hang on but I instinctively leaned forward for a big speed check turn and flew over the handlebars.

I laughed at myself and felt how tired I was as I tried to get back to my feet.

No stopping here, though.

Despite how far I’d come down from the initial powdery face, there still was no safe place to stop & rest.

I continued on.

I eventually found a flat spot away from the mountainous palisades of Monte Bianco (Mount Blanc) and glided to a stop.

I radioed Martin and waited for him there.

Together we battled on in funkier and funkier snow types.

The final test was manky, sticky, sloppy, crusty, icy, crunchy, slurpee, funky snow in the lowers and trees back down to the road.

Our group of 6 had broken into 3 groups of 2 and Martin and I had lost everyone.

We followed Marco & Ross’ tracks until they hit a road.

We weren’t sure what to do so we started walking down the road.

Martin put his thumb out to the first car that passed and it graciously stopped.

An older Italian couple scooped us up and pounded us with good vibes.

They drove us back to the Skyway and set us free.

We walked straight into the cafe for Aperol Spirtz and savory crepe sandwiches.

It’s intense just how quickly you can get into violently terrifying terrain here.

It’s equally shocking how quickly you can go from a scary big mountain line sprawled out in a lounge chair drinking a cocktail and snacking on a croissant.

Life is good here in Italia.

Thanks, Skyway!

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