Elysium 2010
The big one
This is the Couloir (avalanche channel) du Grand Chenau at the Catogne northface. There is very seldom any skier there. Some years ago, I asked a mountain guide from Verbier to go with me. He refused, because he found the avalanche danger as generaly too high. So, I waited till April as the snow is ice crusted, but avalanche stable. I went alone, with the skis on the backpack, through the red dot line upwards. The main channels were impossible while the cliff bar was snow free. The only possibility I saw from below, while ascending this avalanche channel system, was this channel on the left, turning around the cliff bar. But it was very steep. Difficult descent in very fast ice crusted snow, with a mean slope at 45 ° during 100 meters level difference (in the cliff bar zone) I came through with just a skier's thumb (blocked pole under the ice crust during a jumped turn, but I could avoid to fall) I did nothing, and it healed well. www.nyphysicaltherapy.net/Home/PatientEducation/tabid/343...
It was puzzling for me, because the Labande route description was not so steep. I think I diden't found it and that the Labande route is probably on the far right of the Grand Chenau system, much easier, in the medium range, beyond the difficult (AD)
Better not to do such things every day, if one wants to live for a long time !
The big one
This is the Couloir (avalanche channel) du Grand Chenau at the Catogne northface. There is very seldom any skier there. Some years ago, I asked a mountain guide from Verbier to go with me. He refused, because he found the avalanche danger as generaly too high. So, I waited till April as the snow is ice crusted, but avalanche stable. I went alone, with the skis on the backpack, through the red dot line upwards. The main channels were impossible while the cliff bar was snow free. The only possibility I saw from below, while ascending this avalanche channel system, was this channel on the left, turning around the cliff bar. But it was very steep. Difficult descent in very fast ice crusted snow, with a mean slope at 45 ° during 100 meters level difference (in the cliff bar zone) I came through with just a skier's thumb (blocked pole under the ice crust during a jumped turn, but I could avoid to fall) I did nothing, and it healed well. www.nyphysicaltherapy.net/Home/PatientEducation/tabid/343...
It was puzzling for me, because the Labande route description was not so steep. I think I diden't found it and that the Labande route is probably on the far right of the Grand Chenau system, much easier, in the medium range, beyond the difficult (AD)
Better not to do such things every day, if one wants to live for a long time !