Mike Watts - Why I train (1) - skiing the Vallee Blanche

I do CrossFit at CrossFit ISC for lots of reasons – to keep fit for life in general, to be fit for the sports I like, and for the pleasure of training. This is the story of a ski trip down the most famous off piste run in the world, the Vallee Blanche down Mont Blanc.  I wouldn’t have done that without CrossFit fitness – and CrossFit resolve.

Mont Blanc is the highest mountain in Europe, and also has the highest number of fatalities per year. We were standing at the bottom of it, planning to ski down most of it. How did I get here?

For the last several winters I’ve been skiing with three ‘lads’ from my sports club .. what we call the boys ski trip. In summer Ian who organises us emailed to say as he would be 50 that year, he’d like to ski the Valle Blanche – on his bucket list. It looked fine from the comfort and safety of my office, “I’m in”, so March, there I was looking up at Mont Blanc.

It looked like this

– we were going to take this cable car up to 3800m to Aiguille du Midi, the needle at the very top.  20 minutes and two vertical miles later we were at the top – an extraordinary cable car station hollowed into the mountain, and with another elevator up to a high viewing platform.  The view from there was stupendous, more like being in an airplane than on a mountain:

The direction we were heading was less steep, but still a river of ice - cracks like this would form in the glacier, making deep crevasses to avoid:

It was minus 27 degrees and windy at the top – we sheltered in the cable car station to put on safety equipment:  avalanche  transceivers – radios which helped you be located if you were buried in avalanche - and harnesses,  so we could be pulled out if we fell into a crevasse, but also so we could be roped together for the first part.  Ah, more nerves, we knew the first part was a walk down a steep ridge to get to where it was skiable.

Finally we were togged up and emerged from the gloomy depths of the mountain, through a hollowed out snow tunnel into the blinding sun.

We were at the top of an exposed ridge, the cold wind blowing the snow, greeted by a cheerful sign. Skiers beware – no more signs, no avalanche control, no ski patrol, best of luck. (CrossFIt – just do it!)

This is how the camera on my helmet saw it (video):

Click for video

Ski boots are awkward to walk in, the wind was whipping us, and I was aware that I could see all the way down to Chamonix, more than 2 and a half thousand meters below.

We shuffled down the ridge, clinging to the safety rope ….. made it down without incident. Finally we could put our skis on and go.

Off the ridge we were sheltered from the wind, the sun was bright and the snow conditions were perfect for us – soft, but not so we sank in too much for our ability.  Mostly we stayed upright – sometimes not: here’s me keeping clear, while Dolby our guide looks at a couple of the guys scrambling up in the soft snow.

We skied past fantastic scenery, including seracs, great blocks of ice pushed up by the glacier:

It was next to this one where our guide, Dolby, said – “here you must ski exactly in my tracks, and don’t stop”.

This is how it looked – there’s Dolby ahead and here some ominous cracks in the snow.

Dolby said – “you see the cracks? Snow bridge. You stop there, pouf, down you go”. We had just skied over a natural snow bridge covering a crevasse.

And so onwards. Slowly the valley opened up and it was warmer and more sheltered still as we descended.  We stopped to picnic quite hot.

Onwards, past ice caves, steadily getting lower to where trees could grow again, and finally to where we had to stop, and climb a steep and exhausting snow hill across to the main part of the ski resort, then ski down the normal ski runs to a café at the bottom. I was so glad to sit down and have a beer.

It was an exhausting but fantastic day.  We had been nervous before, but it was worth it.

Part of CrossFit – learn a new sport, or if you ski already, try the Vallee Blanche!

#justdoit             Mike

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We found our excellent guide through:   Compagnie des Guides de Chamonix

Huge thanks to Ian for the trip ... and Chris for getting me fit for it.

Hints; Use a guide.  Get fit. Take straps to secure your skis to a backpack for the long walk out and the ridge at the top. Have fun.

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