Both our intro & intermediate weekend ski touring courses had a superb time in the Swiss West Oberland with good weather and impressive amounts of fresh snow after the big storms on Thursday / Friday last week. There had been a lot of avalanche activity both during the storm and in the warm period afterwards and there was plenty of evidence of spontaneous slab avalanches and some big cornices in evidence also.
On Saturday our teams toured up both the Steghorn 3146 and the Lammerenhorn 2806m with some nice windblown snow on the descent albeit with plenty of scoured and hard slopes higher on the higher and glaciated Steghorn.
Today the weather was a bit cloudier and a lot windier but still fine for enjoying the touring with teams / tracks heading out to the Wildstrubel, Mittelgipfel, Roter Totz, Dobenhorn & Schwarzhorn among others.
Coming back west from the Rhone Valley the rain arrived on the Col de la Forclaz and there is another 10+cms of snow due for the Mont Blanc Massif. Over in Courmayeur today Robin skied with team Howarth and enjoyed some great snow in the Vallon des Vesses heading down in to the Val Veny from the top Arp station via the Col de Youla. There was also some good fresh tracks in the Vallée Blanche although there have been numerous avalanches there also after the storm including some serac collapses near the traverse across to the Requin Hut.
We have some remaining places on forthcoming group ski touring days and courses….
- 20th March, Intermediate ski touring day, starting in Chamonix but with the option to travel out of the valley to find the best conditions if necessary. Check out Chamonix Ski Touring page for more details. Sunny weather forecast for this Wednesday!
- 24th March, Ski Haute Route Training day
- 25-29 March, 2 places available on our Ski Haute Route, from Verbier to Zermatt
