That's How It Happened

Too many of my posts give my mother cause for concern, but this one will probably tip her over the edge. I'm visiting Chamonix mostly because of the Rusticana Bar. It's a fantastic little bar, owned and run by the big brother of an old friend. All my nights here are spent propping up the bar. Last night I heard tell of a majestic mini-ski tour. It was reputed to need only 15 minutes hiking to give access to a giant bowl of untracked powder high above one of the regular pisted ski domains. This morning, at a very leisurely hour, I set out with two intrepid colleagues to conquer this mythical "domaine ski-extreme". We went utterly unprepared: no shovels, avalanche transceivers, or even a compass. Armed only with the hazy recollections of an intoxicated barman, and a ham sandwich we ascended upwards from the highest lift along a snow ridge. After a couple of hundred metres slogging through waist deep snow we passed over the crest into the next valley. We than had a mammoth traverse along a 45 degree slope that had hosted numerous avalanches the previous day. We spread out so as not to trigger further shutes and ambled onwards. My fitness is somewhat less than it ought to be for ski-touring, so after an age of sweating and huffing and puffing we reached the next ridge. We were greeted with a fantastic view of Mont Blanc, complete with circling parapentes. We also got sight, by gingerly peeking our heads over a terrifying cornice, of our intended route down. It was at least a 45 degree slope again, littered with rocks, and entirely swept by avalanche rubble. By then though we were too exhausted to consider turning back. As soon as we hit the slope on our boards the snow began to cascade down beside us. I personally managed to dislodge a 50 metre wide slab Luckily no-one fell, no-one was engulfed in hundreds of tons of ice, and we all lived to tell the tale. We breathed a sigh of relief as the snow came to a halt, and then had 10 minutes of blissfull powder carves back to the piste. Totally worth it.