End of Season TR: Cowfighting and some skiing

[stantonbum1]

Along with alcoholism and the marrying your cousin, the big thing to do in Val de Bagnes is to raise prize cows for the local sport of cowfighting. Today they had the main cow fighting event of the season down in Le Chable (below Verbier) and the Bagniards were out in full force to enjoy their main pasttime. After making a few turns in the morning we headed down to the ring to check out the action here are some pics...

The judges, the prizes on hanging up left of them.


The start of the main event:


The last 2 cows faceing off for the main prize.


....now on to the skiing. I woke up this morning not very keen on skiing and had decided to spend the day watching the cows when Doug (Scottishskier) gave me a call. After a bit of discussion I reluctantly agreed to go and have a look at the Bec de Rosses. It was the last thing on my hitlist of things to do in Verbier but I have never been able to catch it in condition and find a ski partner who has done it before. As neither of us had done it we thought we would most likely just hike up to the shoulder and avoid the summit and the gnarliest section.
To get there you drop off the side of Mt Fort and ski to Col de la Chaux. From there its about an hour long boot up the ridge line. Most of the time you are booting up a fairly narrow ridge with a fair bit of exposure on either side. The climb is fairly straight forward, having an ice axe is not a bad idea though. We hiked up along the ridge. When we got to the shoulder it looked a bit tame and was clear that we needed to carry on to the summit. From the summit its a totally different story with the 1st 50m of the descent at an angle of about 55degrees and huge exposure. Doug says that he is scared of heights but put an ice axe in his hand and he turns into an exposure eating machine. Doug lead the way down doing the route finding through the gnarliest sections. The top was fucking scary. I would need a very high confidence day or perfect conditions to get down there with any sort of form. After the top section we exited the couloir to the right for about 20m to avoid some rocks and then dropped back in for the lower section. Compared to the top the lower section of the couloir is a walk in the park. Its about 45degrees and you just have to negotiate a couple of choke points. Unfortunately the snow was pretty grabby so we couldnt really burn it down this section either.

Doug hiking


Doug on the top section, very exposed (shitty photo)


Doug on the lower portion of the dogleg (another shitty photo)


The top section of the line off the Bec


It ended up being a fucking great day. It was my last day on skis for the winter and the Bec was the last thing that I wanted to get done. All in all its been a great season in Verbier and Im pretty content about how my skiin has progressed.

Unfortunately the photos are pretty lame. This TR should improve when Scottishskier posts up the ones he took.

[PulverSchwein]

not lame, the cows look badass, as does that line

[p0wd3r]

Your line is sick! This is great way to close the season!

[Tunco]

That Doug Hiking shot is money.

[homi]

cool looking line.

cow questions : do they fight to the death? and I thought it was either horns OR udder

[stantonbum1]

cool looking line.

cow questions : do they fight to the death? and I thought it was either horns OR udder

They fight to the death and once all the cows are dead the crowd runs out into the arena to feast on the raw cow flesh.

[Ripzalot]

nice! way to get after it.

hope to see you guys again next season...if you stay in yurp.

[Arno]

cow fighting and a gnarly line in one TR
siiiiiiiiick

[rungsp]

100% respect to anyone who skis any line at all on Bec'.
I am in awe...

On the cowfighting allow me to explain a bit for those not familiar:

These are cows, not bulls.
Cow herds are a matriachal group and when two matriachs in their own herds meet for the first time they will "fight" to establish dominance.
They lock horns and push&shove until one gives up.
Once those two have fought it is difficult, almost impossible, to get them to fight again.
Very very rare for a cow to be injured (except the owners pride).
The locals care a lot! There is no money at stake but the honour is huge.

Personally I am a country boy myself and I am a big fan of a cow fight .

It is something that only goes on in the 3 country junction of Valais, parts of the Aosta valley and a few villages around Chamonix.

As a local farmer said to a british farmer friend of mine who asked about yields "we do not breed cows for yield, we breed cows to fight!"

[Huck_Schmuck]

Now I feel bad. Saturday I went climbing, Sunday I was hungover all day. Well done on the Bec bro.

Homi - even the comes with udders have horns here. This is fucking Euroland, everything is hardcore.

[Huck_Schmuck]

rungsp, gotta disagree with you a little there. The two occasions I've watched it, the last two cows have no interest in fighting but the owners keep putting the other cows in their faces. They can barely stand and often have blood coming from their nostrils... I'm not anti, I just no longer care to watch.

You can't even bet on it.

[rungsp]

True enough...they can be exhausted, the blood from nostrils is from getting a horn tip caught.
I've yet to see a cow get really hurt though.

The lack of betting is a big miss though.

[Marius]

congrats for surviving

not so many tracks in there...

[verbier61]

CHAPEAU for the bec!!!!!! you guys rock. Hope to have the pleasure to ski with you again next winter!!

now as for the cows... I'm big fan of valais cow fights... The cornerstone is the black cow of the val d'Herens, selected over the last 25 centuries or so to walk over this part of the alps to get the best grass. This selection process has generated a black cow with short legs and a very fierce temper.
The fight in the pics is sort of the beginning of the regular season. After a number of fights like these, the superbowl will be in the roman arena of martigny (yes, it's a small copy of the coliseum in rome, as old as that in rome) around november 1st. I was there two years ago.... amazing, just amazing... one of the best chance to try to understand in depth the valais spirit.
In any case, each cow has to fight many times during the same day to move to the final fight (which has a lot of TV and press coverage, BTW).

[stantonbum1]

not so many tracks in there...

About 8 or 9 people had been up before us so the top section was really scraped clean of soft snow. At the same time it meant that we had a solid bootpack to follow up which made the ascent a lot easier. It was actually better to have more tracks in so we had something to follow and didnt end up taking a wrong turn

[Scottish_Skier]

What a day...

Cow fighting and Bec De Rosses

The afternoon cow fighting (combat de reine) attracted an interesting mix of Bagnard farmers and Verbier seasonaires.
I am not sure who was drinking more beer

Though perhaps coming from a country famous for tossing the caber I should perhaps reserve moral judgement on this sport.
I think the winning cow gets to lead the herd upto summer pastures from the valley ?


number 57 was a mean 'ol cow


as for the bec de rosses....
this mountain had been tormenting for us several months.
it was the last classic line that we hadnt ticked in the 4 valleys this winter.


the hike up is an airy ridge walk


with a few shitty sections that require an axe, and maybe if the snow was hard crampons

[Scottish_Skier]

A really cool french guy called Eric took this picture of us from Mont Fort.
He had actually skied the same line yesterday and was kind enough to meet us in T-Bar for a beer last night to pass on the pics he took. Good guy !

spot the skiers - We were really taking our time on this section - it felt really exposed. I now have total respect for the verbier xtreme competitors who ski this mountain fluidly with speed....


top of the hanging colouir just off the summit
55 degrees and super exposed...
Wasnt too happy with the terrain here.
Eeeek! Some ultra cautious side slipping required.


just round the corner we were able to let the skis run for 4 or 5 linked turns


Then back into the dog leg colouir - though by this time the terrain had mellowed a little bit


Verbier rocks

[verbier61]

gosh.... I remember giulia monego (first female winner of the xtreme) told me she was simply terrorized the first time she did the bec... your pics clarify the whole issue

[Scottish_Skier]

Yup - though apparently many of the xtreme competitors cross over to the "darkside" on skiers left of Bec De Rosses.

Someone told me there is a time capsule on the summit which you can sign ?
Though we couldnt locate it.

[verbier61]

that I didn't know... and I haven't seen it (when the bec, in summer, is w/o any snow ;-)

[PeterK]

Then back into the dog leg colouir - though by this time the terrain had mellowed a little bit

Interesting "mellow" terrain Way to get it done, I think we saw you on the ridge when we were standing on the top of Mont Fort around 10 in the morning on Saturday.

[stantonbum1]

Interesting "mellow" terrain Way to get it done, I think we saw you on the ridge when we were standing on the top of Mont Fort around 10 in the morning on Saturday.

You wouldnt believe how mellow that feels after the 1st bit. Compare that to pic of dougs ski tips looking down off the summit.

[couloirman]

So whats this, like hiking up a green run Nice TR, thats some fun looking terrain...

[PeterK]

You wouldnt believe how mellow that feels after the 1st bit. Compare that to pic of dougs ski tips looking down off the summit.

Simply looking at that pic almost gives me vertigo... Seeing that picture, and then watching the video I embedded here makes me shiver...

[Gnu]

Props on the awesome lines.

More props on the cowfighting. I find it very reassuring to see the roots of redneckery that trace back to the Old Country.