If you have visited the Northern Alps you have probably seen the Aiguilles d’Arves. They are three pinnacle like summits between the Maurienne and Ecrins. But did you know the central spire has been skied by the south face? According to Nat Schaefer the first descent might have been by Jean Bouchet in ‘96. But then again it was foggy, no-one saw it, so it might not.

The route

What is sure is that it was skied last April by steep specialist Louis Grenet and his friends and they have a video to prove it:-

http://vimeo.com/4021077

You can read the trip report (in French) on skitour. The route is a sustained 45° sur 400 m with passages of 50° and a maximum exposure. You fall, you die.

http://www.skitour.fr/sorties/aiguille-centrale-d-arves,20140.html

the route was repeated by Francois Biju-Duval the next day. Note the comment on skitour “Take care in any case in the future...”. Francois career stopped brutally a month later but he still had time to ski the North Face of the Aiguille de l’Olan.

Les Aiguilles from l’Alpe d’Huez

I never would have imagined that peak was skiable. There lots of nice skiing near it. And I’ve hoped to one day get around to skiing the col in the midst of the Aiguilles d’Arves. But as those nice photos show, the peak looks like just a piece of rock.

Amazing the new stuff the best skiers are still finding.

Ken

Were you able to watch the video? There was some problem with some software I am using on the website which puts the video in a pop-up and I didn’t yet find a way to disable this. For me it is one of the descents of last season (but I’ve not followed the US scene too closely before I get flamed).

Yes I watched the video on the link to vimeo.com