Jim Surette, our filmer/producer on the Antarctica trip,  has  worked hard since we got home, to get the trailer ready for the trade shows. Time well spent it looks like! Here is the final version:

Looks like next week is going to be a stormy  over most of the alps. The storm seems to be coming in from the north west, which is a good thing from Austria, that have been hurting for snow for awhile. Here in Chamonix “north west” means some snow, but usually not huge amounts, which is even better right now since the base is so good. If we get 20cm it would be perfect as avalanche danger would be low (depending on how much wind we get)  and skiing good! The World Tour circus is rolling into town this weekend too, but the weather report does not look good for having the competition. The plan was to have two comps here in Chamonix, as the first leg of the tour in Russia got cancelled because of bad weather. But right now I think they would be lucky to get one day in here in Chamonix. The first day is going to be on the hotel face of Le Brevent, a classic Chamonix Freeride venue, I competed in the very first competition on this face and maybe in the alps? back in 1994. These days its a pretty mellow run compared to something like the Bec des Ross in Verbier, and I would put my money on someone that can pull off some freestyle tricks to win, since there are few really exposed lines so my guess for the top 3 would be Candide, Michaud and Winsted.

Here is Seb’s run from last years comp, that earned him first place, very deserved!

The conditions have been really good here in Chamonix lately, no huge dumps, but nice refills every 2-3 days. It looks like this coming week is going to be much the same, sun for a few day’s in between storms. And the best thing; there are no people here at the moment. You have to love January when it is like now! Here is a little movie from the other day in Vallorcine:

After Jabed Peak, we decided to keep moving as south as we were planning on going, and then work our way back north for the next three weeks. On the way south we cruised through the Lemaire channel, that can be best described like sailing up the Chamonix valley at an altitude of 2000m! Amazing! Huge peaks on both sides, but not much ski potential as most of the stuff was way too steep or guarded by huge serac’s. We sailed past Mt. Scott which was on our list for our way back, and saw a very interesting Colouire than we marked in the memory bank, but our objective was a very nice peak called Mt. Demaria. A perfect ramp, not super steep  but a classic ski-touring line.

Mt.Debreea

We decided to give it a try right away as the weather was perfect, and geared up and got in the Zodiac’s , but as soon as we got on snow, it was apparent that we were to late in the day, the snow was rotten and even with skis on we were sinking down to our knees. We decided to come back the next morning and climb it when it was still frozen.

The view south from the summit!

The next morning we were back on it early, and scored perfect refrozen snow for the ascent. Boot packing felt easy at the low altitude, and we had a blast climbing. It felt liberating to get off the boat and move around on a familiar element. Even though we started climbing at 8am in the morning, already by 10 o’clock the sun was high on the sky, and it was warm enough to wear a T-shirt if it hadn’t been for the non existing ozone layer down there.

Five Star Corn!

We were already so fried from the first day, that we were all covering every little bit of skin from the sun. Sunscreen was not enough, so we were all wearing bandanas in front of our red faces. A slight breeze on the summit ridge felt great, and cooled us down while we looked further south for new potential objectives.Not much to say about the ski down: 750 vertical meters of “Five Star Corn” straight into the Zodiac!

Chris and Andrea waiting for the Zodiac.