The beast, view from the 7 laux

This is the face I see from the house. Hard to believe I hadn’t set ski here since April 2005. Nearly 6 years and several hundred thousand meters of climbing. I decided to start from the 7 Laux. It had been very windy in the morning with snow movement from NE -> SW. Maybe not the best route choice but only 2-3cm of fresh had fallen and the base is pretty solid. The avalanche risk is 1 below 2400 meters at the moment.

The conditions in the forest above the 7 laux are much poorer than at the start of the month. No skiable snow outside of the cross country skiing trails until you reach the Holiday Camp buildings at 1550 meters on the N/W flank of the mountain. Climbing starts just after, I tackled things on the right half of the mountain rather than directly up the narrow couloir. There is a lot of brushwood which is still not covered. Maybe 30cm of snow depth at 1700 meters. The snow was fairly solid but there were some pockets of 5 - 10cm of fresh that broke away in small slabs underfoot. At mid slope there is a narrow gulley. Rather than climb straight up this I traversed across to the N/W ridge which had almost snow cover and climbed on crampons (it was pretty icy and there are places you wouldn’t want to fall. After clearing the gulley I continued up to 2100 meters however the very top of the slope didn’t look skiable and I was worried about larger slabs. The fall is 500m straight down if you get knocked off your feet. So I put my skis on and headed off down the right bank.

Not much fresh at first and a breakable crust. I’d forgotten which side to ski the gulley and had to ski right over to the far left bank to get a good view. I then climbed back up 20 meters on my skis to tackle the gulley by the right bank.

In any event a better freeze thaw cycle on the right bank which had seen more sunlight. The skiing got better and better and the trail back to the 7 laux came far too quickly.

Overall the conditions were pretty good but this in a context of very limited ski touring at the moment. It doesn’t look like the snow forecast for next week will change things as much as expected a few days ago.