My first few turns, with Chamonix only 9000 feet below
Before turning south and heading towards Italy. On the south face I was glad of plenty of edge control, skiing 45 degree slope above a gaping bergshrund (uppermost crevasse on a glacier).
Very nearby, way too close for comfort was the aftermath of a terrible avalanche earlier that morning on the slope of Mont Blanc du Tacul. All said and done 35+ injured and 8+ dead. When i passed by they were in body recovery mode. They quickly gave up due to the danger of more avalanches. The red line is the crown wall. The slope is some 800m (2600ft) vertical.
Nice mellow turns following what is the winter Vallee Blanche. There were a few crevasse crossings to be careful on but I figured that at standstill I have less than one fifth the ground pressure of someone on foot and far less than that whilst moving, even slowly.
Skins on where the glacier turns and off up towards some of the best coffee in the alps
Wandering my way up through the crevasses and seracs I passed many a bemused mountaineer. Yes it was August, but skis sink less than boots and crampons. And as the morning more on this became more apparent.
On the upper part of the Glacier du Geant.
Punta Hellbronner. With the gondola (aerial tram) from the Aiguille du Midi. At the base of the rocks there were loads of tourists playing around on the snow. I think they were more surprised at me having skis than the fact they were home made.
My planks performed without fault. I'm surprised they are still holding up so well. The West system epoxy I used hadn't been stirred after sitting for months and took 3 days to harden. When I first used them, stress cracks appeared in the topsheet. So I gave them a good extra layer of epoxy that has now started to yellow. MaRuMo's skis of the same design but now having remembered to stir and warm the epoxy have showed no stress cracks in many more days use.
