Autumn Avalanche in the Belledonne Mondial du Ski and Snowboard 2007 World’s longest ski vert

Saturday, 29 September, 2007

Autumn Avalanche in the Belledonne

In our September snow bulletin we warned that avalanche conditions in the Isere were unstable above 2000 meters especially with the thaw. Today at 13h00 two walkers were caught by a snow slide climbing a narrow couloir at around 2400 meters above the lac de Crop in the Belledonne range. The two men, both from Grenoble and aged 25 and 34 were carried some 200 meters down the mountain by an avalanche of humid and fresh snow.

Avalanche Lac du Crop (archive photo)

Posted by davidof at 07:41 PM
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Thursday, 27 September, 2007

Mondial du Ski and Snowboard 2007

The Mondial du Ski et Snowboard is the traditional springboard event for the new season. Held over the autumn half term holidays, from the 27th October to 5th November, the event gives skiers and snowboarders access to 110 hectares of skiing on the largest lift equipped glacier in Europe. With snow already falling on the mountains we may even get a repeat of 2003 when, as a bonus, it was possible to ski to the village in a meter of fresh powder.

mondial du ski

Posted by davidof at 08:53 AM
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Saturday, 01 September, 2007

World’s longest ski vert

Where is the world’s biggest ski vertical? You might imagine Everest or perhaps somewhere amongst the high mountain of Peru. Two Austrian skiers from Kitzbühel, Axel Naglich et Peter Ressmann have just skied Mont Saint Elias, in Alaska. At 5489 meters altitude it is far from the highest mountain in the world, it is not even the highest summit in Alaska. That honour goes to 6193 meter Denali (Mt McKinley). However you can ski from the summit to sea level, over 5km of challenging vertical. Mount Everest can only muster 3,448 meters of lung busting descent to base camp.

mount st elias
Nice view