Mini Summit 2005: Yurp/La Grave

Measured with an Ortovox clinometer laid on a flat ski pole laid on the snow surface - not the most accurate of tools but as good as anything on an uneven snow surface I reckon.

I didn't measure much in Verbier - wasn't as interested in that sort of safety aspect as I perhaps should have been. I skied a fair bit with someone who did though. A couple of measurements I remeber from stuff we skied together: the steepest section on "Highway" was about 40; the steepest pitch (the top one) on the N face of the Bec des Rosses was about 58. That was the steepest thing I have ever skied.

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Originally posted by Mulletizer
the steepest pitch (the top one) on the N face of the Bec des Rosses was about 58. That was the steepest thing I have ever skied.

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:eek:

58 is pretty scary, eh? BTW, it's a pity the xtreme staff almost didn't post pics on skiers doing the bec this year. Just 3-4 pics, nothing serious compared to the tons dedicated to boarders. Yeah I know they were almost all locals, but why forget them? The verb ride web site is improving, but still poor compared to the xtreme. Budgets must be very diferent, though

http://www.natives.co.uk/resorts/ver/xtreme.jpg

he he.

How do the measurements you took on the PdR compare with the upper section of Les Enfetchores?

Concerning Verbier: Do you guys know the name, the steepness and the route in general from the Mont Fort down to the lake ? not the "normal " one going down backside, but the one where you traverse up on the ?ridge?(damn what's "grat" in english?)and end up on a small glacier ?

a friend of mine ,who is doing gnar gnar in cham( so he is pretty reliable :D), said it was around 45° but i just couldn't believe it.
i would say more about 40° although i may have misjudged it because it was a pretty wide open field and not a steep colouir.

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Originally posted by bad_roo
How do the measurements you took on the PdR compare with the upper section of Les Enfetchores?

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Having never got myself up to the top of Les Enfetchores I can't really say. I believe there's a very steep pitch just below the Breche de la Meije but that it doesn't normally hold snow so is rapelled. I think most of the Enfetchores itself is relatively mellow - 35-40. Could be wrong though.

SP: I've always called it the North Face of Mont Fort. I've heard some people call it "Cat Walk" (because of walking the ridge, I assume) but I always knew the hike from the top of Gentianes-Tortin to skiers' right to get into "Superbowl" as "Cat Walk". There are plenty of different names people give to lines in Verbier...

There are few different routes down there. Quite far skiers' left is the most open, if I remember correctly, and between 40 and 45, closer to 40, I think. Skiers' right is about the same although it has several cliff bands and a few steeper sections. Experience says that it's a bad spot to pre-release.

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Originally posted by subtle plague
Concerning Verbier: Do you guys know the name, the steepness and the route in general from the Mont Fort down to the lake ? not the "normal " one going down backside, but the one where you traverse up on the ?ridge?(damn what's "grat" in english?)and end up on a small glacier ?

a friend of mine ,who is doing gnar gnar in cham( so he is pretty reliable :D), said it was around 45° but i just couldn't believe it.
i would say more about 40° although i may have misjudged it because it was a pretty wide open field and not a steep colouir.

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plague, from the mont fort you can go virtually everywhere :D
north, to the dam and then nendaz?
east, arolla and them zermatt?
west, to gentianes?
south, lac de mauvoisin?

none of them are SOOOOO steep as the bec des rosses. N and E might be pretty dangerous if you get lost, though

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Originally posted by Mulletizer
SP: I've always called it the North Face of Mont Fort. I've heard some people call it "Cat Walk" (because of walking the ridge, I assume) but I always knew the hike from the top of Gentianes-Tortin to skiers' right to get into "Superbowl" as "Cat Walk". There are plenty of different names people give to lines in Verbier...

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Barrage? :confused:

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Originally posted by bad_roo
How do the measurements you took on the PdR compare with the upper section of Les Enfetchores?

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Woah, wanna go touring? ;) Les Enfetchores is actually pretty flat, kinda like les Vallons, except for the short face coming down from Breche de la Meije but you can rarely ski there, you either rappel or walk/climb down. Try tilting your head 90 degrees next time you have a look at it and you'll get a better idea on how steep (or flat) it really is.

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Originally posted by Mulletizer
Last time I skied it (actually the only time so far) I measured it. That was in early January 2002. The steepest part was high skiers' left, just below the entrance to the NE Couloir. The gradient was just about 50 there. Most of the face (below and to skiers' right) was more like 45, and between 40 and 45 (closer to 40, I guess) right above the rimaye.

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You skied in from the lower traverse, right? The upper part feels and looks a little bit steeper.

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Originally posted by Mulletizer
No one (that'll be you Glisseur) believed me that it was 50, but I swear it was. :D

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No way dude, the steeper you say it is the cooler it makes me look :D

This feels like a discussion worthy of skipass.com ;)

Yes mullet, north face is what he called it too.
a prerelease is not recommendable though :)
and i guess he and i are both right as you expressed correctly :D
40-45° is always a good measurement. ;)

i have to ski the pan de rideau to compare hrr hrr (and i havent done the trifides too....(well i did a side entrance some years ago with the skierslodge guide who died last year.. :( .. poor philipp....)! )

I skied Trifides Zero last season with Glisseur and Mulletizer and I'd estimate that to be about 45 degrees at its steepest spot with most of it running at just over 40. Not too tricky in decent snow. That's wheer the vidcap for Mulletizer's avatar was taken. He's not on a monoski. ;)

NOT on a mono ski ???? :D
i thought he's one of those derelicts from the 80s still lingering in la grave...

reminds me of that really really weird chick we met down in the forest one day who "showed" us why you should not become a fucked up ski bum....(alle of her utterances consistes of some incoherent babbling and she had the ugliest eyerings i have seen.. EVER. and ive seen a lot considering that we have a 5day party called carnival here :D) .she WAS on a mono ski. scary.. ;)

edit: isnt the entrance part(first 30-40m) of the trifides, even of the main one, closer to 50 ? we could not ski it around new year because only the lower parthad a decent coverage this year....(an i couldnt even do that because i had lost my buddies and skied with my girlfriend... :( . )
they saw some one huck into zero from the third one....pretty impressive they said. (it wasnt one you madmen was it ?? ;) )

No excuse for monoskiing. Even if you are a freak.

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Originally posted by bad_roo
No excuse for monoskiing. Even if you are a freak.

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my new signature.
thanks :D

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Originally posted by subtle plague
edit: isnt the entrance part(first 30-40m) of the trifides, even of the main one, closer to 50 ? we could not ski it around new year because only the lower parthad a decent coverage this year....(an i couldnt even do that because i had lost my buddies and skied with my girlfriend... :( . )
they saw some one huck into zero from the third one....pretty impressive they said. (it wasnt one you madmen was it ?? ;) )

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There was a huge ass rock barring the entrance to Trifides Zero when I skied it. Mulletizer and Glisseur just kinda skipped around it into the chute but I didn't fancy that and stood there for a while eyeing my enemy. I eventually stepped onto it and jumped in. The run didn't seem that steep but that might be because I was then concentrating on catching those two loonies. It's not much steeper than the Banane.

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Originally posted by bad_roo
It's not much steeper than the Banane.

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hrr hrr.
ok. so its slightly above 35° ? :D
but you may be right about the upper part... it didnt seem THAT steep looking up from the middle part. but that was a long time ago. Im getting scared easier every year. must be the age hrr hrr

hmm so you hucked the rock ? i pussied out every time this year when facing my nemesis....(you can see it in the video...the one where i sneak around through the small trees on the right side. at least i stomped the whimp version... :rolleyes: )

What would a trip like this cost minus airfare from the east coast? Yurp summit would last a week right? And assuming I'd do it in traditional dirtbag fashion, no foofoo stuff for me.

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Originally posted by subtle plague
hmm so you hucked the rock ? i

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Hucked would be a massive overstatement. Stepped onto, dollystepped along the top of and then stepped gingerly off is closer to the mark.

Cant - La Grave is all about the dirtbag stuff. I don't think it's possible to get too foo foo there if you tried. A six day lift ticket is 150 Euros.

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Originally posted by bad_roo

Cant - La Grave is all about the dirtbag stuff. I don't think it's possible to get too foo foo there if you tried. A six day lift ticket is 150 Euros.

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Thats nice, hopefully the dollar will start kicking euro ass before january. What about getting to La Grave, whats the best airport to fly into? Are there hostels in town?

Grenoble is the closest but not so easy to get flights into. Lyon St Exupery is probably the best bet. Coaches run from there to Grenoble and from Grenoble up to La Grave (except when the Col du Lautaret closes and then you need to get rescued by us).

Mulletizer and Glisseur are the guys to speak to about accommodation in town. It's not a big place. There will probably be beds in Chalets de la Meije that you can crash in with Ripzalot, Truth and co in January that will be pretty cheap if you get full occupancy.

So it's all pretty affordable and easy to manage. There's plenty of good folk on hand to help you out.

The best airport is Grenoble (about 1.5hrs from LG) but I doubt TransAtlantic flights fly into there. Lyon is about 40mins further away. If you fly into London or Amsterdam or Franfurt and have to change to get to the Alps then aim for one of these two. Geneva is further still and there's no public transport from there to the Southern Alps (=expensive so bad for the dirtbag) so try to avoid it.

There are some dirt cheap hostels in La Grave, around the $10-$15 p/n mark. I am hoping I'll be able to help the needy with floorspace but won't know until closer to the time what room-mates are up to then so can't promise much. Might be able to hook people up with somewhere very cheap/free hopefully.

LG can be done way cheaply. You can dirtbag a week for little more that $250 (including your pass but no travel costs) and quite possibly less if you hold off the beer in the bar (it's cheap to buy though - about $5 for a 24 can crate of nice 330ml beers).

BTW, I don't know if Truth, Ripz and co have booked a place to stay already but the apartments in the Hotel de la Meije (above the pub) are now fully up an running. They appear to come in about 10 or 15 euros more expensive than the Chalets but appear much roomier on the floorplans and have similar facilities. Might be worth checking out.

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Originally posted by subtle plague
reminds me of that really really weird chick we met down in the forest one day who "showed" us why you should not become a fucked up ski bum....(alle of her utterances consistes of some incoherent babbling and she had the ugliest eyerings i have seen.. EVER. and ive seen a lot considering that we have a 5day party called carnival here ) .she WAS on a mono ski. scary..

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Know who you're talking about and you're right, she's totally FUBAR from all kinds of chemical and herbal substances. A typical French La Grave local I'm afraid, these people are usually extremely hostile and annoying and refuse to as much as look your way even though they know you've been there twice as many years as they have. If you're French and take as many drugs as they do then you're ok... TGR always talk about the Jackson hardcore scene but the LG one's in it's own league sometimes, it's gotten better in the last few winters but some of the "locals" still piss me off.

I would say that none of the Triffides are steeper than 40 degrees at any part (except for a few meters in exceptional conditions). The main couloir is prolly around 35 for the most part and a bit steeper above the rock at the entrance, but close to 50? I doubt that. Zero should be about the same, maybe even flatter and Triffide Two is slightly steeper. Just my opinions having skied them a couple of times :)

Now it really sounds like skipass.com in here...

Imagine three cartoons. On the first there is a bike rider leaning about ten degrees from vertical. In his thought-bubble you see him leaning like Mick Doohan, right on the limit. This rider, when he comes to a corner that is sharper than he initially thought, or needs to tighten his line, thinks I'm over as far as it's possible to lean and to lean any further would be impossible. So he straightens up and brakes in the corner, causing him to run wide and off the road / track. This is the most common scenario when riders run out of bends.

The next scenario is his brother. This time the cartoon shows the rider leaning as far as it's possible to lean and yet in his thought-bubble you see him leaning about ten degrees from vertical. In this case the rider's self-evaluation is that he has plenty of lean angle left, and when he comes to a corner that is sharper than he initially thought, or needs to tighten his line, he leans further -- but as he is already at his limit, he just levers the wheels off the ground and once again crashes out of the corner.

You then see a third character whose lean angle is about twenty degrees and his thought-bubble is about twenty degrees. When this rider comes to a corner that is sharper than he initially thought, or he needs to tighten his line, he knows exactly how much bank angle he has left, and just leans the bike over sufficiently to make the corner. But he still doesn't know how steep Trifides Zero is.

I have no clue how steep Trifide 0 and 1 are but they didn't seem nearly as steep as the pitch on Pan du Rideau right below the high entrance. Trifide 1 reminds me a lot of dropping in to West Cirque at Whistler, but it's about 5 times as long.
But then again, couloirs with open outruns never feel as scary to me as big open faces with rocks everywhere above bergschrunds.