Last weekend me and a group of friends went to Saanen to enjoy a bit of skiing in the posh area of Gstaad. Once arrived there on the Friday there is almost no snow, but on Saturday around 40cm fall and the conditions become immediately good for a ski tour. The choice is for the highest peak in the region which is the Sommet des Diablerets. We can only start from the bottom station at 9:40 so we decide to take the cable car up until Sex Rouge (what the hell of a name is that by the way?), ski down to the glacier and then start heading to the summit. I know...taking the cable car is cheating...but hey, other this way or nothing this time :)
At the arrival on the top cable car station it is clear is going to be a nice, but rather cold and windy day. For the first part of the descent I'm wearing all the 5 layers I took with me...and this even in the first part of the uphill. At the beginning we go up on the side of the piste, and then shortly after straight on the ridge pointing up to Le Dome. As soon as we go off piste something else becomes clear...there is a lot of new snow and it is going to be tiring to break trails today. From the summit of Le Dome the route follows the ridge slightly on the right hand side until the very last part before the saddle between P 2986 and P 3109. Last part of the ridge is far too steep to be skied down so we put the crampons on, take the ice axe and down climb it. Quite easy terrain but it adds some sort of excitement to the tour.
Once on the saddle we gently get down on the glacier slowly sliding down the steep side of it, straight on the glacier. The slope is very short, but it looks like it could be dangerous for avalanche so we just take it easy...until we are finally down on the glacier...completely white and completely untouched. It looks as soft as a cloud....but you know what this means?? That we are going to have to break trails for the whole day on it!! It's not steep, and it won't be steep until the summit but we are sinking all the time beyond the knee and a couple of times almost up to the hips!! Breaking trails in such a soft and deep snow is for sure something nice but also very tiring! Snow is so deep that the person breaking trails can't see his skis anymore. It feels like running in the water, just much more tiring. We take turns in breaking trail and soon we reach the plateau between the summits of Sommet des Diablerets and Tete de Barme (which at the beginning wrongly believed was the summit we were aiming for...).
The last part of the uphill on the summit is the most steep one and despite all the effort to break trail, we just can't wait to ski this stuff down!! At the same time we see people following up back on the ridge. They seem to be very slow on the ridge and we realize they probably don't have crampons or axe and are just abseiling that short section that we down climbed. Safe, that's for sure, but it took them almost two hours to get back down on the glacier!
And finally we get on the last part of the summit ridge were soft and fluffy snow leaves for much harder and sometimes completely icy wind blown snow. As always in the Alps the view from the summit is simply amazing but given the strong wind and the rather cold condition there is not much time to sit around and take pictures. Just a quick stop, take the skins off, and the back down on the glacier to enjoy the powder.....
.....enjoy??? Apart from the very first meters down where the angle is steep enough, we simply cannot ski down unless pushing ourselves with the ski poles. Snow is so soft, and the angle of the slope is so small that there is no chance to get enough lift to actually ski this stuff. The only thing to do is to lean back as far as possible and trying to slowly go forward...but this makes our legs burn like hell in a matter of a less than a minute. So we come up with an interesting idea. One of us has to to try and break trails first while the other wait. Then the second picks up speed in the trail of the first one and at the last moment overtakes the first one, keeping on breaking trails with the gained inertia...Yes such things happens when two engineers go ski touring together!
But even this approach is not working like wonder and we decide to just head straight for our uphill tracks. Once on them we simply have to follow. To break I simply point my skis back in the fresh powder and sometimes the snow piles up to my chest...never seen anything like this. If only we had a 25° slope to get down on it would have been so much better...but also more dangerous because of possible avalanches.
Nevertheless, once back under the ridge we take the skis of and walk back the steep part until the saddle, then put crampons back on and climb back the part of ridge that we down climbed. On the summit of Le Dome we put the skis back on and get back down on the glacier. Skiing on the piste gives a nice relief from all the efforts of the day...but it's not yet over. Since we did not pay for the full ski pass we decide to skin up the last part to the cable car station...and I take the chance to transform this last part of the tour into a cardio training! Just push push push up the hill like mad, taking a couple of breaks to get back some oxygen in the lungs.
A short but intense and tiring day...surely worth all the efforts and also the not really cheap ticket for the cable car!
At the arrival on the top cable car station it is clear is going to be a nice, but rather cold and windy day. For the first part of the descent I'm wearing all the 5 layers I took with me...and this even in the first part of the uphill. At the beginning we go up on the side of the piste, and then shortly after straight on the ridge pointing up to Le Dome. As soon as we go off piste something else becomes clear...there is a lot of new snow and it is going to be tiring to break trails today. From the summit of Le Dome the route follows the ridge slightly on the right hand side until the very last part before the saddle between P 2986 and P 3109. Last part of the ridge is far too steep to be skied down so we put the crampons on, take the ice axe and down climb it. Quite easy terrain but it adds some sort of excitement to the tour.
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| Just before the down climbing section |
Once on the saddle we gently get down on the glacier slowly sliding down the steep side of it, straight on the glacier. The slope is very short, but it looks like it could be dangerous for avalanche so we just take it easy...until we are finally down on the glacier...completely white and completely untouched. It looks as soft as a cloud....but you know what this means?? That we are going to have to break trails for the whole day on it!! It's not steep, and it won't be steep until the summit but we are sinking all the time beyond the knee and a couple of times almost up to the hips!! Breaking trails in such a soft and deep snow is for sure something nice but also very tiring! Snow is so deep that the person breaking trails can't see his skis anymore. It feels like running in the water, just much more tiring. We take turns in breaking trail and soon we reach the plateau between the summits of Sommet des Diablerets and Tete de Barme (which at the beginning wrongly believed was the summit we were aiming for...).
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| Yes...it was that deep! |
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| Kane looking pretty happy...little does he know that I stopped to ask him to break trails :) |
The last part of the uphill on the summit is the most steep one and despite all the effort to break trail, we just can't wait to ski this stuff down!! At the same time we see people following up back on the ridge. They seem to be very slow on the ridge and we realize they probably don't have crampons or axe and are just abseiling that short section that we down climbed. Safe, that's for sure, but it took them almost two hours to get back down on the glacier!
And finally we get on the last part of the summit ridge were soft and fluffy snow leaves for much harder and sometimes completely icy wind blown snow. As always in the Alps the view from the summit is simply amazing but given the strong wind and the rather cold condition there is not much time to sit around and take pictures. Just a quick stop, take the skins off, and the back down on the glacier to enjoy the powder.....
 |
| Matterhorn, Dent Blanche...and all the other magnificent 4000m summits of Wallis |
.....enjoy??? Apart from the very first meters down where the angle is steep enough, we simply cannot ski down unless pushing ourselves with the ski poles. Snow is so soft, and the angle of the slope is so small that there is no chance to get enough lift to actually ski this stuff. The only thing to do is to lean back as far as possible and trying to slowly go forward...but this makes our legs burn like hell in a matter of a less than a minute. So we come up with an interesting idea. One of us has to to try and break trails first while the other wait. Then the second picks up speed in the trail of the first one and at the last moment overtakes the first one, keeping on breaking trails with the gained inertia...Yes such things happens when two engineers go ski touring together!
But even this approach is not working like wonder and we decide to just head straight for our uphill tracks. Once on them we simply have to follow. To break I simply point my skis back in the fresh powder and sometimes the snow piles up to my chest...never seen anything like this. If only we had a 25° slope to get down on it would have been so much better...but also more dangerous because of possible avalanches.
 |
| Deep powder |
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| Walking back up on the ridge |
Nevertheless, once back under the ridge we take the skis of and walk back the steep part until the saddle, then put crampons back on and climb back the part of ridge that we down climbed. On the summit of Le Dome we put the skis back on and get back down on the glacier. Skiing on the piste gives a nice relief from all the efforts of the day...but it's not yet over. Since we did not pay for the full ski pass we decide to skin up the last part to the cable car station...and I take the chance to transform this last part of the tour into a cardio training! Just push push push up the hill like mad, taking a couple of breaks to get back some oxygen in the lungs.
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| View from the summit of Le Dome back towards our tour...the tracks are pretty obvious. |
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