Failure at Bringing Home the Bacon

Hello All--

Last weekend, in a failed attempt to defend my title as "bringer home of bacon", I placed third in the annual Trail des Balcons Sud de Chartreuse.  It is the same race that I somehow managed to score a first place finish in last year (and, in so doing, winning the infamous 6kg ham--see post from last May), but much to my dismay, the level of competition was a bit higher this year and I was only able to sprint myself into a third-place finish behind two extremely capable and fit women.   

At the same time, my dear franco-american friend Emilie, who I initiated to the world of trail running last fall at a woefully un-documented 10km, ran the 9km version. As you will see in the photo at the bottom, she was certainly the prettiest and happiest looking participant, and reports that despite a lack of training as compared with last year, she found the race to be fun, and not that hard.  Bring on the tougher races! 

The race followed nearly the same course as last year, with only a slight detour caused by several weeks of rain and intense mud.  We ran 24km with 1200m of up, starting and finishing in the town of Quaix en Chartreuse not far from Grenoble.   

Despite being very far behind on my training schedule for the Grand Duc, I managed to finish only 1 minute behind my time from last year, at 2 hours and 44 minutes.  The ladies decked out in "Ski Mountaineering World Cup" gear got in nearly 10 minutes before me, and #4 trailed me by 6 minutes. 

In one month's time, I am hoping to be, once again, super-fit and ready to run 49km with 3500m of vertical as a member of the team "Tough Bunnies".  My new team member (Brad has opted out this year), Marianne, has already logged a marathon this spring, and is training up a storm, so I have to hold up my end of the deal.  Late-season snow makes the training difficult, and motivation lacks, as I know there is no longer a ham in my future, but I'll check back in with the next update on my very unorthodox training milestones.  In the mean time, enjoy these photos of running, which are sure to disappoint as our audience has become far too accustomed to high mountain snow-romping photos....

"j'en chie parceque je veux en chier"

prettiest 9km runner around

me, looking like a goofer, on the right, ham-thieves on the left

Wrapping up the schussin’ season on Neige Cordier & les Dômes de Monetier: Ecrins, as per usual...

Big pretty forecast, stable spring snow, game on! Olivier nearly couldn’t join us after his neighbor locked him out of his apartment and peaced out to Alsace, but fortunately he was able to execute a stealthy break in and swipe his ski gear at the last minute.

Our adventure began on Friday night with a 2-hour hike in ski boots up to the refuge de l’Alpe above Villar d’Arène in the fog (photos not shown). We’ve been wanting to complete a grand loop in the Ecrins all season, and finally were able to make it happen: up the north ridge of Neige Cordier, down the south side to the Refuge du Glacier Blanc, then up to the Dômes de Monetier and back to Monêtier-les-Bains via the Col des Grangettes and some sheisty billy goating through the most extensive avy debris I've ever seen.

Also we got back on steep snow for the first time since Hill’s accident (just over a year ago) and she sent it with style and ease… 

Hillary and Olivier enjoying the magic hour after an early wakeup. 

We went up the couloir on the right and then up the ridge to Neige Cordier (3614m).

Emerging from the E couloir and starting up the ridge.

I wish that arête never ended... definitely the best part of the route. 

For 19 euros, a room with a view. 

Gettin' it on the Couloir du Col Jean Gauthier - AD. 

Despite appearances, sometimes we do partake in downhill skiing. 

On the Dômes de Monêtier summit plateau - pas mal là haut!

Grenoble Proximity Freeriders on the summit, minus Ian this time. 

Early Season Grimpin' at the Gerbier w/ Hillary and Ian - Vercors

Romantic Anniversary Weekend....

Happy Anniversary!!

...For the second year in a row, Brad and I have chosen to spend our anniversary weekend in a sweaty, crowded mountain refuge bunk room in Les Ecrins.  And to make things special this year, as we were celebrating a momentous 5 years of couple-hood, we decided to make things extra-romantic by inviting Olivier and Ian along for the adventure.

We left late morning Saturday to drive part way up the Veneon Valley (one of our favorite places) to park Olivier's Laguna on the sunny side of the valley and take a leisurely afternoon skin up to the Refuge de la Lavey. We all agreed that the refuge would be much better situated about 2 hours further up the valley in order to shorten the Sunday morning slog, but didn't complain when we arrived at the beautifully situated hut and lounged in the sun.

Refuge de la Lavey

Very warm weather and strong sun dictated a very early wake-up, and Brad and Ian regretted not having taken advantage of my roadside earplug distribution (thanks, Nancy!!) as we spent a short night in the crowded dortoir.  The gardienne was not too pleased that we disregarded her 4am wake-up time in favor of a 3am wake up, but we felt confident in our decision to start our day early to avoid too much heat on the one east-facing slope we had to descend.  

morning panorama, les Rouies in the upper left

With skis on our feet and headlamps on our heads, we left the hut (1797m) at a very romantic 4am, and slogged south down the long, flat valley before turning to begin climbing to our first high point of the day: the Col de la Lavey (3309m).  Already starting to feel the altitude and the heat of the sun, we pulled off skins and headlamps, put on our glacier gear, and quickly descended onto safer terrain on the flatter Glacier des Rouies.  

View from on high

Though it was still before 9am, we kept our re-fuel and re-skin break short while observing a steep south-facing slope purge wet, sloppy snow.  Setting a definitive turn-around time at 11, we headed up the long, gradually sloping glacier to the summit cone.  The combination of 2,300m of climbing in one day and an altitude of over 3500m slowed us all down, but especially Ian and me, who had not spent quite as much time schussing at altitude this season.  

With 360° spectacular views, we were all a little sad to call it a day so early (we would have loved to spend the whole afternoon basking), but the hot sun left no us with no choice but to point our skis downhill and slide back down the valley.   Up high, we were still early enough to have great spring corn snow as we followed our own tracks back down the glacier.  

Once down to the flat valley floor and back in the safety zone, we ate lunch and enjoyed the warmth and tried to put off the long double-poling adventure through snow-soup conditions back to the road and back to the city.  

looking up from our lunch spot
 reminds us why we get up early
(don't worry, those aren't our tracks!)

Olivier captures the lovely couple

Each weekend that we spend in the mountains, I am continuously impressed by the incredible terrain and also blown away by the proximity to Grenoble.  This fact was especially driven home last Sunday when, in the space of little more than four hours we went from being at 3500m on skis down to 200m in the sunny city where people in t-shirts and sandals were lounging at sunny cafés.  While there are so many reasons that we love were we live, these days remind us of what is certainly the most important part: 

Location, location, location. 

Part of me hesitates to even include a map-version of our itinerary since
 it will look so silly next to Brad's professional-grade ones, but here it is! 

Ian, star of our blog

Olivier, official holder of candles (i.e. third wheeler)

The 5th time is the charm: on the summit of the Taillefer at last

        Last weekend I finally settled a score that has been a thorn in my side since 2009. The Taillefer, at 9,374' and located within a half hour's drive of Grenoble city limits, is not a coveted test-piece of high technical difficulty. It is a classic, frequented and moderate summit that constitutes a bread and butter outing for Grenoblois skiers. It's a little bit long to get all the way to summit (about 5,500' of vertical and 5-6 miles), and there is a short passage of 45° terrain at the Pas de la Mine (see map), but there is nothing show stopper about the regular route. Olivier would say "ça passe à vélo" and indeed he has mountain biked to summit, although this feat remains somewhat exceptional. 

         Fate, or perhaps I should say the regional bus service, brought the Taillefer and I together during my first stint in Grenoble studying abroad in 2009. Eager for public transport-accessible ski touring, the Taillefer represented one of my only options for a weekend mission. As the suite of successive failures recounted below will show, over the past five years the Taillefer for me has become an haut-lieu of learning, frustration and humility... 

Olivier and I topping out the Petit Taillefer, photo by Hillary.

A SUITE OF FAILURES (see map below)

(1) January 2009. My opening encounter with the Taillefer. Cédric Godefroy (friend of Christophe's) pulled the map out at the bar and naturally I was stoked. The next morning we took the tram, then the bus, stashed our street shoes at the "départ" and we were off. Pea soup fog and having no idea where we were prompted a turn-around somewhere below the Pas de la Mine at around 2500m. 

(2) February 2009. Friends of my brother's, Derek and Lindsey, stopped into my tiny basement studio in Grenoble as part of a 3-month ski trip in the Alps. They came out from Washington state with dreams of heady ski mountaineering but alas equipped with plastic soled alpine boots and no crampons or ice axes. I still feel terrible about swiping Jean Mi's antique wooden ice axe from his storage bin without asking, and then seeing the look on his face when Derek thanked him profusely for lending it the following night. Regardless, after failure #1 I knew that taking the bus from Grenoble and trying the Taillefer as a day trip wasn't going to go, and so we headed up the day before, rented a room in town of la Morte and set alarms for ass early the next morning. We proceeded to get passed by Grenoble retirees (who admittedly are super fit) all morning on the skin track. Derek and I managed to cross the Pas de la Mine before perfect weather and ideal snow conditions forced us to turn back. 

(3) March 2009. Hillary came out to Grenoble during her spring break, which all Taillefer anecdotes aside was the best. The day after her arrival, and for her third or fourth ski tour of all time on borrowed Middlebury Freeheelers gear, with all the Alps at our fingertips I thought it would be good idea to go back to the Taillefer. Fortunately Hillary was easily impressed and she found the bus ride to the trailhead to be spectacular. This time I planned to to assure success by staying at the Cabane de Brouffier hut located almost at the half way point. I told her that in the Alps you don't need to carry a thermarest because of the well-equipped huts. It turns out nobody stays at the Cabane de Brouffier and the place resembled a bombed out cement bunker more than a mountain refuge, and without mattresses we spent the night sleeping on a hard floor with gore tex zippers digging into our sides. Then, still jet lagged, Hillary used ski crampons for the first time before we laid to siege to the Pas de la Mine using a rope and snow pickets. We nonetheless had a beautiful traverse of the Petit Taillefer and sunny picnic at the Col du Grand Van at the foot of the summit cone before bus schedules forced a turn around. 

(4) February 2013. Hillary and I were looking for a long, not-too-steep tour to and from a beautiful summit: why not the south face of the Taillefer? Surely after all our grand adventures this summit would pose no difficulty and would affirm all our progress and growth as backcountry skiers since 2009. What's more, Olivier had done the south face in 3 hours by himself -- how could we miss? As we thrashed through cliff-ridden slide alder at the horribly low altitude of 1400m, knowledge of Olivier's feat only added to an overwhelming sense of frustration and hopelessness. With no way forward apparent and everything in question, Hillary and I exchanged unkind words before turning around and skiing back through the schwack with skins still on (failure 4a). At that point it was 9:30am, and we decided to head further up the valley and try the next drainage over. We did another 900' of vertical of heinous, impenetrable bushwacking before emerging into the alpine basin just as the sun swung behind the Grand Armet across the way and cast the valley into shadow. No sunny picnic for us. We took skins off this time and schussed back to the car with tails decidedly between our legs (failure 4b). Hillary, who had mentioned a sore throat the night before, now felt terrible and opted to sleep in the car for two hours while I went to the nearby ski area and tried to ski out my frustration. 

(5) April 2013. Honestly, I regret not inviting Ian and Hillary to come with Olivier and me on last weekend's outing. Especially after what we did this weekend in les Ecrins (post forthcoming) we clearly could have done the tour as a unit. As it happened Olivier and I left earlier with our sights on the summit and Hill and Ian got a later start with the goal of having a casual day out and skiing the Crête de Brouffier. With Olivier all the failures dissipated and nothing seemed hard -- we avoided the Pas de la Mine by taking a more direct couloir (see photo) and after a bonus pitch of corn from the Petit Taillefer proceeded without difficulty to the summit. Then we added an out and back to the Pyramide (9,314') for good measure. After standing atop the Taillefer for the second time that day (yes!), descent down the north combe made for a spectacular day out with over 15 miles of distance and 7200' of vertical. Rising temps and receding snow might force us to wait until next season, but clearly Hill and I owe ourselves a return visit.

Here is a link to Olivier's account of the day, en français bien sûr

BRO-SUMMIT(S) - JESSE & SAMBO MAKE IT TO GRENOBLE

        After over two years of threatening and scheming, friends Sambo and Jesse finally made it out to our neck of the woods for an all too brief week+ visit. Our initial plan to ski over 75 miles from Grenoble to Briançon meta-morphosed under the influence of weather, prospects of slogging and the desire to ski good snow with light packs. After receiving a meter of new snow and lots of wind during the first weekend of the trip, primary goals became 1) not getting caught in an avalanche 2) skiing to Italy and 3) sharing a mix of novel and familiar terrain with these guys in hopes of boosting the odds of future visits.
        Hosting East-coast friends and skiers was more fun than I could have imagined. I think Sambo would have happily sessioned one alpine cirque (and the forest leading up to it) for the duration of the trip, based on his unrelenting motivation to ski every gully, glade, snowfield and cooler in sight. Frequent references to Nashoba Valley made whatever we were doing, even if it was low-angle skinning through risk 4 windslab, seem like a grand expedition. And it was, especially when the baseline meant hanging out with these two wonderful characters and getting to mix friends from home with people and places over here.  

LAUSIERE - le Bellachat (2484m) & la Pointe des Marmottes Noires (2339m)

Olivier leading Team America from the comfort of his splitboard. 

Skinning past heady aiguilles on Day 1.

Sambo happy with his choice to tele "for esthetic reasons." 

Ian getting it done on the northeast side of les Marmottes Noires. 

Meadow skipping

Hillary making a weekend appearance and scoring one of the best days of the trip.

QUEYRAS - Col Agnel (2744m) & l'Eychassier (2968m)

Lifestyle image from the hut picnic table, courtesy of Gubb.

The man himself strolling to the Col de l'Eychassier.

Sambo taking it to the summit. 

Bro self-portré. 

Ski incursion into Italy and timeless style, check.

BELLEDONNE - la Grande Lance de Domène (2780m) & le Grand Colon (2394m)

Psyched on the summit with the Grand Pic de Belledonne in the background
(no big deal, we traversed that ridgeline with Gus two summers ago...)

Jesse casts off from the summit of the Grande Lance. 

Sambo, nobody cares that you tele. That said you're a hoser...

Oliver shreds down B14.1, a real Belledonne classic. Lots more snow than
when we skied this with Thad, Carrie, Brian and Hill last winter. 

Le vieux bouqetin en action!

On the summit of the Grand Colon with Jono in our midst, with Grenoble and springtime down below. Alas, Jono is heading back to America this week and will be sorely missed as a provider of good banter on the skin track and over beers, not to mention as the man who brought All of the Lights to the Grenoble brassband scene. I plan to bombard him with constant Big Pretty Propaganda in hopes that he will be back in Grenoble soon... 

Another Sunday at church in les Ecrins/Cerces

COULOIRS WEST & NORTH OF THE GRAND GALIBIER (3228m) 

Looking across the way toward the Aiguilles d'Arves.

          Yesterday I headed up to the Lautaret Pass with Ian and Olivier for a day of "roadside cragging" (couenne),  as Olivier would call it. This definition included about 6000' feet of vertical spread out over two couloirs and featured hours of strenuous bootpacking, but I suppose it did all happen fairly close to the car. After ascending the W couloir, Ian opted for a two-hour a nap at 3000m rather than the trip down and up the northern couloir, which I thought was a very respectable choice. We then proceeded to the summit all together before heading down the W couloir just as the afternoon sun started to soften things up. All in all a great day out that confirmed two things I'm pretty sure I already knew: couloir skiing (not too steep and with good snow) is wicked fun and the Ecrins remain an endless playground...    

Serious bricolage through a small rockband midway down the couloir W, but the skis stayed on!

How are these men single?

Endless roadside cragging, 1h30 from Grenoble.