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| At the base getting ready to ride the 2nd scariest tram in the world |
So one of my bucket list items has been to ski the Vallee Blance, one if not the most famous runs in the world and today was the day! To start this run you need to take the 2nd scariest cable car in the world up to the top of L'Alguille Du Midi at over 12,600 ft, it's really one heck of a ride and I was happy to be in the middle and see around me. Our guide today was suppose to be a guy named Clement from
Evolution 2 Chamonix France, he was no where to be seen, Eric asked this rough looking guy if he was our guide and answered no, wait until 9am! To which I said great another old grumpy French guy, he have me a pretty dirty look.
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| Me and Robert our guide from Evolution 2 |
So a few minuets later this grumpy old French guy came over and asked my name I told him 2 under Lining, he says your with me!! Great I've already pissed off the guide he's gonna kill me up there. Well our group turned out to be 4 very nice women, 3 Irish sisters Orla, Jenny, Jackie, and one English Rachel who was writing a travel article about Vallee Blanche for a newspaper. Skiing Vallee Blanche everyone is required to wear a climbing harness, not only for the descent at the beginning but if you fall into a crevase and need to be rescued.
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| Warnings before you enter the gate to Vallee Blanche |
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| Lets Do This! |
Once at the top they took us thru a tunnel that was carved into the rock and out to an overlook platform, from there we saw the top of Mt Blanc the highest Moutain in Europe.
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| Our wonderful group for the descent down Vallee Blanche |
We all went back into the tunnel and our guide Robert,tied us all together for the descent to where we would start skiing, and wow what a experience that was. We headed out a tunnel into some super heavy freezing cold winds, I think we were at 12,700 ft and you had to climb down on slippery Icey snow holding on to nothing more than a rope! On one side it dropped straight down 3000 ft and on the other 1000 ft. Eric took the picture below from the top it shows our descent.
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| Image Eric took of where we would soon be descending |
This descent took about 1/2 an hour and at one point Eric took a spill, our skis were tied to our backpacks and the rout was very narrow your skis would hook on the snow behind you making it feel like you were being grabbed, well he hooked a ski and went down it was freakin scary!! Mind you this whole time the cold wind is just blasting you, a couple times my fingers went numb. It was such a relief to finally be at the bottom.
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| Robert and Rachel getting ready to continue on ski's |
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| Finally at the base where we would start to ski |
Now we took our ropes off put the skis on and the fun began, Robert had 2 rules ski close to my tracks and always stop above me, he had 41 years of guiding experience and I wasn't going to argue. We start off in some wind blown crusty snow but as soon as we were in the open area further down it turned into beautiful powder and no more wind.
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| A happy Me :) |
The views are indescribable, pictures do it no justice! Amazing what lie before us. In the beginning we just followed Roberts trail, then he took us to a nicely pitched run that had waist deep powder, omg so much fun! No here is where I give Orla, Jenny, Jackie and Rachel much respect as none of then much or no off-piste experience at all, talk about guts!! They each handled themselves great in the deep snow, Eric & I would usually be the last 2 down incase someone needed help.
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| Eric, waiting his turn |
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| Rachel enjoying the views |
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| Our guide Robert |
Once at the bottom it flattened out and Robert told us that we would now be crossing snow bridges to stay in the middle of the trail. This made me nervous as I had read that 2 weeks ago one of the snow bridges had collapsed and a person was killed. So well all skied over the bridges and next to a glacier on of the most beautiful sites I have ever see, blue sparkling ice!
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| Skiing around and in a glacier |
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| more blue ice from the Glacier |
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| this image show how vast the glacier is |
We spent the next hour skiing in and around the glacier. We then got to this large open area that looked like a frozen lake, stopped at a rock pile and ate lunch .
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| Welcome to the top of the world! |
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| Lunch on some rocks |
It was a sunny perfect day and there was no place to stop and have lunch with our new friends :). After we skied across this lake still encountering the glacier, here you to be careful as there were lots of rocks sticking out. This seemed to go on for quite some time, at one point we dropped into a shallow cravasse and skied in and out of it. Finally the trail came to a dead end and I look up to see a line of people climbing out of the valley, are you F'ing kidding me now I have to rock climb back up?? So we put our skis back on our backpacks and began the ascent it was slow, steep, slippery and rocky you had to carefully place each step, at one point I fell when I to lift myself over a rock,you fall and it's going to be bad. This climb went on for 30 min at the top was a small bar but we just put our ski on and started the long descent back to town. We used a guide company called Evolution 2 and I highly recommend them if your ever in Chamonix want to ski the Vallee Blanche and hopefully you get Robert and his 41 years of experience.
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| Rachel coming up the final climb |
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| At the base fo the final climb up and ot of the valley |
The descent was long narrow and full of rocks, reminded me the type trails I rode up in Bike 4 Peaks. About half way thru we had to stop for a train and literally ski over the tracks after it had passed. 40 min later we were back at the resort and on a piste run to the bottom, wow what an adventure. We said our good byes to Robert and then the 6 of us went to a local bar and enjoyed a couple beers to celebrate surving our adventure and new friendships. This was truely a bucket list event perfect weather, friends and wonderful memories! We had told the girl about the awesome Hot Wine so they joined us for a few of those as well, perfect end to a perfect day!!
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Hot spiced wine with Orla, Jackie and Jenny after our great advneture
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