Cham mini summit report 2/6/2004

BLUEBIRD!!!

LITT picked me and my bud up in the morning and we're up to Cham to meet up with Idris and Splat, who procured a slopeside condo across the Aiguille tram and a clear view of the peak.

After an early morning shopping spree to load up on crampons, harnesses and other assorted shit we were on our way. Met up with Phil Ingle at the base and up top but he left us as he sprinted down the arete to go kite skiing.

Splat totally JONGed it on the sketchy part of the Arete :D, landing face first in a hairy section. The rest of it was pretty sketch.

Finally we got to click in and skied some insane windblown pow, photoslut on spring-like corn, and shit our collective pants as LITT skied straight into a crevasse and disappeared. He survived :D

The rest of the Envers and Vallee Blanche was a mixture of spring snow, bumps, some windblown stashes. Scenery was fucking insane. Photoslutted for Splat the better part of the afternoon.

At the end of the day Idris and I decided to ski to the base while Splat, LITT and my bud go for the Monteveners railway. The remainder of the run was a sketchy skier-cross type obstacle of rocks, ice, crevasses, mud, more rocks and other assorted shit (fun shit). Pics to be posted later. Good times with a great crew.

I'm tired as shit and we are leaving early manana and heading to Italia to skia some-a good-a snow-a in-a Alagna. Prego!!!

Later,

Punani
Chamonix France
Feb 6, 2004

Toto, we're not at Boston Mills anymore.

No La Thuile? (translation: The Hole).
Alagna rools.

I hate Italy, there's no French people there.

Nice to be back on the boards. Great trip down the arete, trying to skip through the sketch downclimb only to take a minor tumble whenskis hanging off the back of my pack got hung up, pushing me forward into a tumble on a skinny two foot wide path a few thousand feet above cliffs off both sides. But no biggie. The downclimb was so slow the line stretched all the way back into the station, taking an hour or more from the time we got out of the telepherique and onto our skis. Skiing was great, thought LITT was a goner when he disappeared into a crevasse. Got some killer shots down the Petit Envers and through the Vallee Blanche. Tom provided stellar guiding, as always. Had to reign in Punani, who skied like he was in Kirkwood, so he wouldn't zip into a crevasse and kill himself. Glacier is still pretty pocked with holes hundreds of feet deep. Basically the greatest of days, a couple close calls, lots of pics, great skiing, and everyone got out alive. Looking forward to Alagna..........

^