backcountry journal
col du Bonhomme
les Contamines/Mont Blanc
les Contamines/Mont Blanc
late Dec 06
After a few half hearted visits to some Austrian resorts in November and December, we finally made a late start to our back country touring season. Last Spring I explored on foot a small area in the western sector of the Mont Blanc massif and decided to return in early winter for some touring as it has a good selection NE to NW mountain faces that early in the season would hold cold protected snow on grass and rock. This opposed to touring amongst barely filled in crevasses in the more popular part of the range seemed like a good idea. Considering the very sparse snow fall this season it was a good idea as most glaciers are still full of very poorly bridges crevasses. However, the snow pack is so bad here that our plans did not work out so well and we spent more time walking between rocks than sliding.
We were based in les Contamines (near to Chamonix) for 5 days over Christmas yet only managed two days of back country touring and didn't bother with any resort riding at all.
We were based in les Contamines (near to Chamonix) for 5 days over Christmas yet only managed two days of back country touring and didn't bother with any resort riding at all.
Not much snow. Col du Bonhomme on the left with some ok higher terrain to the right
Day1: I flew from home in Düsseldorf to Milan and then drove to les Contamines in France where I met up with Mio who had taken a train with the dog from her home Paris. She had exams right up until her departure and I was working flat out and we only settled into our accommodation at 2am. On top of that we had not managed to do any refresher beacon search exercises nor did we have a good finger on the snow conditions. To head out ski touring within a 5 hours of arriving from distant cities would be inviting an accident and so we decided to cancel the tour we had planned for that day. Instead we made the time to take a breath and enjoy a day of relaxation over a nice lunch together. After that we wandered up the valley to do a few hours of beacon search practice which went very well. We finally decided that the performance of Mio's BCA Tracker was so poor compared to my Pieps DSP and so when it started to get dark we finished our training session and went to buy here a Pieps model the same as mine.
Day2: Time to tour. Out of bed at 6am and parking the at the trail head by 7am, 1200m elevation, -5C. It was still dark and we were a little slow getting going, something that we couldn't afford considering we had a 5 hours climb ahead of us. We were headed for the col du Bonhomme (Gentlemans col) at an elevation of 2329m. The route up is via a summer hiking path also popular in winter with snow show day walkers. Several hundred years ago the same path was used by the Romans moving north into France and beyond.
The weather was as forecast: very clear and getting windy. Two hours into the hike we were well above the tree line and the wind was getting very strong. It was Mio's first heavy exercise since last season so we were going a little slow. It took almost 4 hours to reach the base of the 30 degree NE aspect slopes leading up to our target col. This area has some great rolls and other terrain features with short sections of 35 to 40 degrees. The wind was so strong that the transported snow billowing off the ridge above us was thick enough to partially block the sun. It wasn't looking good. We pushed on even though the dog had turned in a walking ball of ice. Eventually the wind blew Mio over and we decided to shelter behind a boulder. Enjoying a cup of very hot tea from my new 0.75 litre thermos we considered the situation: chances seemed likely that the various gullies and protected rollovers were being loaded with slab. The snow whipping from the ridge line was fantastic to watch but killed our hope of getting a good descent that day.
Day2: Time to tour. Out of bed at 6am and parking the at the trail head by 7am, 1200m elevation, -5C. It was still dark and we were a little slow getting going, something that we couldn't afford considering we had a 5 hours climb ahead of us. We were headed for the col du Bonhomme (Gentlemans col) at an elevation of 2329m. The route up is via a summer hiking path also popular in winter with snow show day walkers. Several hundred years ago the same path was used by the Romans moving north into France and beyond.
The weather was as forecast: very clear and getting windy. Two hours into the hike we were well above the tree line and the wind was getting very strong. It was Mio's first heavy exercise since last season so we were going a little slow. It took almost 4 hours to reach the base of the 30 degree NE aspect slopes leading up to our target col. This area has some great rolls and other terrain features with short sections of 35 to 40 degrees. The wind was so strong that the transported snow billowing off the ridge above us was thick enough to partially block the sun. It wasn't looking good. We pushed on even though the dog had turned in a walking ball of ice. Eventually the wind blew Mio over and we decided to shelter behind a boulder. Enjoying a cup of very hot tea from my new 0.75 litre thermos we considered the situation: chances seemed likely that the various gullies and protected rollovers were being loaded with slab. The snow whipping from the ridge line was fantastic to watch but killed our hope of getting a good descent that day.
Very windy. The the snow being blown off the ridge in huge plooms. We intended to climb to that ridge the next day but had to change our plans.
The dog dug himself a small snow cave and I dug a quick snow pit which predictably revealed 40cm of very dense accumulated wind slab on top of a 4cm crust which was protecting about 50cm of extremely loose faceted snow. We were only on a 30 degree section of slope and the slab was pretty stable on that, although the column did fail slightly on the faceted snow as I was cutting it. Even though I guessed that the slab was strong enough to bridge our weight, with wind like that we decided to cancel the remainder of the ascent to the col.. Who knows what small pocket of weaker slab was building in one of the many gullies that we could easily have ventured into. After that we had to snow shoe back over a flattish section that was still full of rocks and patches of grass.
Our descent from there was unremarkable. I tried to find a protected couloir on eth way down but failed, leading us into a short rocky chute that still had a running creek under the snow. Luckily the old Roman road is very well sheltered from the sun and had snow all the way back to the trail head. This path gets quit icy lower down and it was certainly not what we had hiked 4 hours to ride.
Day 3: We took a day off. Our planned start time was again 7am and that is well before the day's avalanche bulletin is published. Considering the very high wind from the previous day I speculated that the official avalanche risk would be raised from 2 to 3 (out of 5) with the possibility in the bulletins text for warnings about localised wind slab. Plus we realised that the snow conditions were so bad that there was little point heading up to that area for the next 4 days running. It turned out that the risk level was not raised in our area of the Alps, the boarder between the Haute-Savoie and Savoie regions. But further to the south they had increased the risk rating and predicted local slab activity. I have since read that in that area a skier was rescued from an Avalanche.
Our descent from there was unremarkable. I tried to find a protected couloir on eth way down but failed, leading us into a short rocky chute that still had a running creek under the snow. Luckily the old Roman road is very well sheltered from the sun and had snow all the way back to the trail head. This path gets quit icy lower down and it was certainly not what we had hiked 4 hours to ride.
Day 3: We took a day off. Our planned start time was again 7am and that is well before the day's avalanche bulletin is published. Considering the very high wind from the previous day I speculated that the official avalanche risk would be raised from 2 to 3 (out of 5) with the possibility in the bulletins text for warnings about localised wind slab. Plus we realised that the snow conditions were so bad that there was little point heading up to that area for the next 4 days running. It turned out that the risk level was not raised in our area of the Alps, the boarder between the Haute-Savoie and Savoie regions. But further to the south they had increased the risk rating and predicted local slab activity. I have since read that in that area a skier was rescued from an Avalanche.
Mio back in the valley after the first day of failed touring. The wind was very light in the valley and there was a thick coating of surface hoar.
Rather than ski tour we gathered our equipment and did some flat-land crevasse rescue practice. By flat land I mean no on a glacier, rather in a flat snowy area. Mio and I have little choice but to tour alone as a team of two, which is less than ideal on crevassed terrain. So we continued to perfect the best system for a two person team. For anyone into this thing we are using a z-pulley built onto a c-pulley. This gives enormous mechanical advantage. After a few hours working with the rope and practicing rigging the system we decided that one of the braking prussics was not letting the rope run as it should when pulling. So we returned to the drawing board to solve this and a few other obvious flaws in our system.
Day 4: Christmas day. Up at 5.30am, good breakfast, back packs on by 6.55am. Another pre-dawn start up the same old Roman road as two days earlier. This time we intended to reach a SW facing slope near the flanks of Mont Tondu (which I had tried to climb last spring but gave up due to rain…and being alone). Our progress was much faster and since Mio had found some rhythm. However it was still not quit fast enough and by 12 noon we still had a solid 2 hours of ascent to go. Mio was getting a little tired and thanks to the very bad snow cover we had to cross a long rocky section that on return would need to be walked rather than skied. We considered our firm turn-around at 1pm rule and realised that to continue on the objective would be a waste of time as. The 1am rule requires us to start our descent by that time at the latest. This is to build in a time buffer in the case of sudden nasty weather or injury. It starts getting dark and cold by 3.30pm so reaching our objective summit or col at 2pm is not advisable. We changed our plan in an attempt to salvage any ok riding from the morning of effort. Within an hours traverse lay on ok face that we predicted would be reasonably unaffected by the previous day's strong wind. It turned out to have an inch or two of breakable crust/slab on top of cold and loose depth hoar. At 1pm we finsished our traverse and got ready to ride. Io set up my new helmet cam for the first test trial. That thing is fiddly and just another bit of potential gear hassle. The ride down was short: from 2300m to 2000m. Very depressing. We then walked for an hour across rocks and grass and snow patches just to descend back down into the valley below via the same narrow icy path that we had already been up and down. It took way too long to get back down since Mio was very worn out and I was very irritable. It was not a good end to a long day of effort. But it did prove that Mio can carry her load for about 9 hours, something I was very impressed with. She is very tough considering her lack of aggressive physical preparation over the summer months.
Day 4: Christmas day. Up at 5.30am, good breakfast, back packs on by 6.55am. Another pre-dawn start up the same old Roman road as two days earlier. This time we intended to reach a SW facing slope near the flanks of Mont Tondu (which I had tried to climb last spring but gave up due to rain…and being alone). Our progress was much faster and since Mio had found some rhythm. However it was still not quit fast enough and by 12 noon we still had a solid 2 hours of ascent to go. Mio was getting a little tired and thanks to the very bad snow cover we had to cross a long rocky section that on return would need to be walked rather than skied. We considered our firm turn-around at 1pm rule and realised that to continue on the objective would be a waste of time as. The 1am rule requires us to start our descent by that time at the latest. This is to build in a time buffer in the case of sudden nasty weather or injury. It starts getting dark and cold by 3.30pm so reaching our objective summit or col at 2pm is not advisable. We changed our plan in an attempt to salvage any ok riding from the morning of effort. Within an hours traverse lay on ok face that we predicted would be reasonably unaffected by the previous day's strong wind. It turned out to have an inch or two of breakable crust/slab on top of cold and loose depth hoar. At 1pm we finsished our traverse and got ready to ride. Io set up my new helmet cam for the first test trial. That thing is fiddly and just another bit of potential gear hassle. The ride down was short: from 2300m to 2000m. Very depressing. We then walked for an hour across rocks and grass and snow patches just to descend back down into the valley below via the same narrow icy path that we had already been up and down. It took way too long to get back down since Mio was very worn out and I was very irritable. It was not a good end to a long day of effort. But it did prove that Mio can carry her load for about 9 hours, something I was very impressed with. She is very tough considering her lack of aggressive physical preparation over the summer months.
After more than 4 hours hiking we realised we wouldn't reach our goal on the upper flank on Mont Tondu.
...so we traversed away for an hour to reach midway up this face and made do with that. This picture was taken after our descent. You can see the terrible flat rocky ground that we had to negotiate at the bottom. Not what all the effort is supposed to produce.
My Christmas day salami lunch.
Day 5: There was little point in heading out again. We had to leave late evening and had no options left for good touring. The few places that seemed good were at risk of being dangerously wind loaded or required about 7 hours of hiking followed by 2 hours to descend (at Mio's speed). These three factors ruled out just about all options for the day. We considered venturing closer to Chamonix and having a go at the couloirs on les Grand Autannes above the le Tour ski resort which looked ok from a distance. But unknown wind loading and the very high chance of desperate for snow Chamonix crowds put us off. So we spent our remaining day doing a few more hours of beacon practice, this time with multiple burials. Mio is very good at it, which is commendable. She is better and more committed to the skill than nearly every more advanced male that I have toured with. It gives me a lot of confidence - and pride - to see how capable she is with the theory and practice of avalanche beacon search.
After that we returned to our crevasse rescue system, laying out the rope and the gear on the snow and using a small tree as an anchor point. We solved one key problem by replacing the troublesome braking prussic at the anchor point with a Wild Country Ropeman. This was very effective. Now with a c-system plus a z-system, a Ropeman, a prussic and two pulleys we have a rescue system where Mio would be able to haul my weight. We spent a few hours of practice repeatedly setting up the system and both now feel quite comfortable with the mechanics and theory behind it. Next, we want to practice the drill in a safe crevasse and consider a few complicating realities. I have put a diagram of the system here.
Mio has returned to Paris to pack up her apartment and hand in a final paper, after which she will relocate to Düsseldorf and continue her job hunting. I am back at work for three days. Our next back country outing starts this Friday night when we go to the Engelberg area for three days.
After that we returned to our crevasse rescue system, laying out the rope and the gear on the snow and using a small tree as an anchor point. We solved one key problem by replacing the troublesome braking prussic at the anchor point with a Wild Country Ropeman. This was very effective. Now with a c-system plus a z-system, a Ropeman, a prussic and two pulleys we have a rescue system where Mio would be able to haul my weight. We spent a few hours of practice repeatedly setting up the system and both now feel quite comfortable with the mechanics and theory behind it. Next, we want to practice the drill in a safe crevasse and consider a few complicating realities. I have put a diagram of the system here.
Mio has returned to Paris to pack up her apartment and hand in a final paper, after which she will relocate to Düsseldorf and continue her job hunting. I am back at work for three days. Our next back country outing starts this Friday night when we go to the Engelberg area for three days.