2014 Ski Tour Day 6 with Paul Hellen and Simon Read. The final day. Lovely lay in until 5:45am, no stress start, on the snow at 6:45. We were all looking forward to a more laid back leisurely day by ski touring standards. Short ski to the base of a small 120 metres 45 degree slope just for starters. Very technical ascent with too many high pressure kick turns. Once at that summit it was just a simple plod about 1,600ft up to almost the top of the mountain. I say almost because we were looking at a 100 metre wall on front of us. This was the only way home so it was skis on rucksacks, crampons on boots and Ice Axe in hand. Paul had remembered his today! Cant say I enjoyed one second of it but it was good to get to the top which after less than 3 hours left us a simple ski down about 6,000ft on altitude. It didnt start well for me with a big crash that nobody else saw so by the time I climbed back up to my ski that had landed away from me and clicked it back on the mountain was totally deserted. I skied in the direction I thought the others had gone and soon found them which was worth it otherwise I would have missed Pauls slow motion over the handlebars crash. The snow was frozen, bumpy and steep in places however the best part was nearer the bottom when it flattened out a bit. Pauls and my crash were nothing compared to what we next witnessed. Simon was on a mission to maintain as much speed as possible across a flat section as he noticed Paul in the distance pushing. Great plan if only hed noticed the stream running across the slope. He made the 6ft gap sort of, but lets just say the landing didnt go too well. Both Paul and I were concerned for short while we didnt even start laughing for at least 2 seconds. Luckily Simon was ok and at this point about 4.5 hours into the day we thought we were home and dry not realising we had about five miles to go! The first half of this consisted of negotiating about 15 recent avalanches sites where most of the snow had disappeared and replaced by either massive ice boulders, stones or mud. We must have taken our skis on and off about 10 times to carry them across impossible terrain. It was all worth it though for a moment when Simon had another mishap that ended with one of his skis flying down the mountain over the remnants of an avalanche. At this point he was a beaten man and just calmly said oh, there goes my ski. Finally we got back to flat snow and arrived at the village, only not the one we have to go to. Just to finish our legs off properly we had to push (or skate on skis) along a flat track for a final 2 miles. At last the end after 6 much harder hours than we anticipated and we clicked off our skis outside a bar. A well deserved beer and Tartiflette. Im now enjoying the comforts of our 1* hotel in Moutiers with hot and cold running water and a flushing toilet! Absolute luxury!
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 21:30:57 +0000
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