I’m looking for some steeps in Cham to ski in preparation for skiing the Mallory route on the Midi. Can you suggest any places to practice?

see the page: http://pistehors.com/backcountry/wiki/Haute-Savoie/Chamonix-Mont-Blanc#OffPiste
In particular the little blue book Chamonix Hors Piste has most of the famous ones and is entertainingly translated into english.
Have fun and be safe,
Niall

On the Brevent side there is the couloir d’ENSA. At Grand Montets there are some chutes off the top station such as the Poubelle. Pas de Chevre too. I will post some more details when I get back home. I’m not sure any of these really have the steepness and exposure of the Mallory though.

I would suggest ordering the Volopress book covering the Mont Blanc range, it is now in English:-

http://www.volopress.net/volo/spip.php?article456

Here are some sample pages

http://www.volopress.net/volo/IMG/pdf/4MBL_C3-7.pdf

http://www.volopress.net/volo/IMG/pdf/5MBL_C11-12.pdf

basically anything in the range 4.1-4.3 is steep skiing and in the range 5.1-5.6 is extreme skiing. The Mallory is graded 5.4 with an exposure of 4 (you fall… you die) so you should look for shorter couloirs in the 5.3-5.4 range with E1/2 for training laps.

This is a descent of the Mallory I saw on Youtube a few weeks ago

http://www.youtube.com/v/mSEmYkirBoE&hl

looks quite sketchy. Good luck and bring a rope.

Thanks for the info, really helpful.

I also fully recommend this book by Anselme Baud, I regard it as something of a bible for ski mountaineering in the Chamonix valley

http://www.amazon.com/Mont-Blanc-Aiguilles-Rouges-Skiers/dp/1904207278/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

It includes a thorough description of The Mallory, including several variant routes after the top section for descents in varying weather and season conditions.

I find “The little blue book” to be a load of garbage other than for recommending a few simple itineraries close to lifts to play in. Not only is the translation very poor, but even when you read the French the detail is too scant for serious descents.

Good luck and video it please

I’d suggest in this case the old adage rings true. If you have to ask you’re not ready. The Mallory is bigger & badder than just about any other lift accessed run in the Chamonix valley. It is true you fall you die territory. At the steepest point it’s at least 55 degrees possibly more with 2 other sections in excess of 50 degrees. It also requires a high level of mountaineering ability having to remove your skis & set up an abseil in a very steep & exposed situation. Any of the routes suggested previously in this thread are not even in the same league as the Mallory (Edit - with the possible of exception of the routes in the links Redac provided).

However in the interest of being helpful here are a few suggestions in approximate order of difficulty. Pretty much all of these would be classed as extreme however the first few are at the boundary between steep off piste & true extreme. The truely extreme routes also require perfect spring conditions to ski safely -

The Glacier Ronde & cosmiques couloir on the west face of the aiguille du midi.
The north north east face of the Courtes.
The Poubelle on the Aiguille du Midi.
The Whymper Couloir on the Aiguille Verte.
The Gervasutti Couloir on the Tour Rhonde.
The Gervasutti Couloir on Mont Blanc du Tacul.
The north face of the Col Du Plan has a number of abseils in the middle but is less steep than the Mallory.

All of the above with the exception of the midi routes & the col du plan require touring & mountaineering skills to get up.

Interesting how the NNE of the Courtes has been downgraded from extreme to merely steep these days with lots of people skiing it in a season. Even Aurelien Ducroz

http://www.zapiks.fr/last-run-cham-2009-1.html

although it seems he had to be dropped by a helicopter rather than walking up.

By litte blue book I assume Dan is talking about the Vamos guide book?

Yes davidof, The Vamos guide. They do one for most of the French resorts.

Perhaps I am a little harsh about it, but it’s not really a serious ski mountaineering book whereas the one by Anselme Baud is full of wisdom and tips from a lifelong ski mountaineer. It also describes features of the route and importantly possible alternative/escape routes.

On a slightly different note, I’d love to see someone develop the Vamos book more and make a guide to itinerary routes that are readily accessed from lifts (thats what it should be) and have safe escape routes onto pistes/roads etc.

I take my hat off to anybody seriously planning to attempt The Mallory

Dan Fascia - 12 December 2009 12:28 PM

On a slightly different note, I’d love to see someone develop the Vamos book more and make a guide to itinerary routes that are readily accessed from lifts (thats what it should be) and have safe escape routes onto pistes/roads etc.

We should crowdsource this book and do it as a not-for-profit publication. It would require some effort to get the photos and routes together though. I’m considering doing such a book for the Belledonne but more aimed at ski touring but would need to seriously tackle the mountains quadrant by quadrant.

Here are some Grands Montets routes (click for full size version)

Feel free to post descriptions or amendments

This is really excellent, thank you. I will put this to good use tomorrow.

I’ve taken some pictures today around the Brevent of good easily accessible trails which I intend to annotate and post once I’m back at home tomorrow, if in fact the plane can take off with the amount of snow there is…

I’ve always fancied that big long descent down to Le Lavancher but have both struggled to find the starting point and also have a slight fear of this sector given that Lavancher means avalanche. Any tips on how difficult this route is to find / how hard it is? An alternative to Pierre a Ric would be welcome

Take care out there. I’ve got a trail map of the Brevent but don’t know where the Allais couloir is so it is unmarked. Will post later.