Photo courtesy of Tom Greenall  www.idriskis.com

Since the start of the 2009/2010 ski season I have been out enjoying the snow.  So far we have had a pretty good amount of snow across the Alps inter-dispersed with some very cold weather before Christmas as well as some warmer days too.

In Chamonix we now have excellent snow after a big snowfall on Monday on 4^th Jan, we got approximately 40cm of beautiful cold fresh powder and the skiing all this week was amazing.  I managed to sneak out of the office for a few hours on Wednesday to do my first run down the Vallee Blanche of the ski season.

I joined some friends and we headed up the Aiguille Midi cable car to the summit at 3842m, the sun was out, very little wind and great snow conditions.  We decided on the Envers du Plan route down the glacier, which is a spectacular route but this time we had to make the route down as it had yet to be skiing.

Negotiating the crevasses and overhanging seracs was interesting to say the least, its intimidating heading down a route such as this with no prior knowledge if your route will suddenly be barred by an un-crossable crevasses.  It certainly tests your navigation and terrain reading skills!

Fortunately my good friend Stuart MacDonald was with us, who is a IFMGA Mountain Guide, so is very capable at the route finding.  The snow was fantastic, at least half a meter of beautiful cold powder snow, lots of face shots and fresh tracks were had.

If you want to ski the Vallee Blanche then you need to be a good skier with some off piste experience and its essential you have a Mountain Guide with you.  To book one check out http://www.mountaintracks.co.uk/winter

Photo courtesy of Tom Greenall  www.idriskis.com

I have also enjoyed some great skiing on New Year’s day on the Glacier du Toule in Italy, some tree skiing at Le Tour and some steep skiing with my friend Roger Knox on the Brevent ski area in Chamonix.  We skied the ENSA couloirs last Sunday which is a 45-50 degree couloirs on the south face of Brevent, with the view of Mont Blanc in front of you and the town of Chamonix 2500m straight below you.  It’s an exciting ski for sure especially when you get in powder snow all the way down.

The weather forecast is good for next week, some sunshine but with the air temperature staying cold which will mean the snow will stay good.  I am sure Emma will update you with her skiing antics in Verbier since Christmas when she can.

Don't look down, ENSA Couloirs

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