:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:Thank you. It was fun. About as hard as I had imagined, but unbelievably rewarding. I'm completely hooked by ski-touring. All I need to do now is get a job so I can pay for next year's jaunt, wherever that is. (Oh yes, and that job has to allow me enough time off to fit this in along with everything else I want to do.)
Excellent writeup, sounds like a very cool trip. Ski touring and X-C skiing have been touted as good cross training and/or off season alternatives for cyclists, so this does fit reasonably well in the Rides and Touring forum.
Just skimmed this and it looks wonderful! I'll (snow) plough through it in detail when I have a bit more time, but doing the Haute Route has been a dream of mine for a few years now. (Together with Riding the Divide, sailing across the Pacific.....etc) The last time I skied was a decade ago and that was on skinny skis with no edges doing cross-country at Nancroix. Does one need to have decent Telelmark skills to ski-tour or do the skis do much of the work for you these days?Yup. Time is running out for adventures. Sailing the Atlantic is on my list.
Day 1 - Arg Town > Ref d’Arg | Day 2 - Arg > Cab du Trient | Day 3 Pt 1 - Trient > Champex Lac | Day 3 Taxi | Day 3 Pt 2 - Le Chable > Cab de Prafleuri | Day 4 - Prafleuri > Cab du Dix | Day 5 - Dix > Cab du Vignettes | Day 6 - Vignettes > Zermatt | |
Day’s total distance (with lifts and cabs) | 27 | 11.8 | 10.2 | 21.2 | 20.5 | 11.7 | 9.41 | 28.8 |
Running total distance | 27 | 38.8 | 49 | 70.2 | 90.7 | 102.4 | 111.81 | 140.61 |
Distance under our own steam | 16.8 | 11.8 | 10.2 | 0 | 12.3 | 11.7 | 9.41 | 28.8 |
Running total distance UOOS | 16.8 | 28.6 | 38.8 | 38.8 | 51.1 | 62.8 | 72.21 | 101.01 |
Day's ascent with lifts | 4890 | 1054 | 68 | 0 | 3195 | 875 | 1064 | 1411 |
Day’s ascent UOOS | 190 | 1054 | 68 | 0 | 585 | 875 | 1064 | 1411 |
Running Asc UOOS | 190 | 1244 | 1312 | 1312 | 1897 | 2772 | 3836 | 5247 |
Day’s descent | 2965 | 670 | 1750 | 0 | 1370 | 615 | 832 | 2510 |
Running Desc UOOS | 2965 | 3635 | 5385 | 5385 | 6755 | 7370 | 8202 | 10712 |
Start time | 09:50 | 07:10 | 07:00 | 09:30 | 10:05 | 07:20 | 06:20 | 06:10 |
End time | 16:45 | 14:45 | 08:50 | 10:05 | 15:20 | 12:50 | 16:10 | 14:05 |
Max Elevation | 3305 | 3345 | 3180 | 1485 | 3145 | 2969 | 3790 | 3581 |
Min Elevation | 1225 | 2542 | 1485 | 720 | 835 | 2275 | 2845 | 1870 |
Developments in ski-touring kit mirrors developments in cycling. 'Freeride' was a response to the demands of snowboarders who found that the faff of split boards wasn't worth it. Hybridisation has brought the benefits of innovation into touring. In cycling, we've seen Mountain bikes and Road bikes hybridise into 'Gravel Bikes' then mutate into 'Adventure Touring' bikes. There are ski touring equivalents to Audaxing as well.I resisted buying any of the ski-touring hardwear for this trip for a few reasons: I might not have enjoyed it; you cannot know what gizmos/gadgets/features are of any use until you've had a chance to try the activity first, so get suckered in to buying kit with features that are completely superfluous; and finally that as I'm not working, buying it all would have been hard to justify (or afford).
I had ambitions to do the Haute Route in the early 2000s. But a very expensive tour in the Bernese Oberland, that consisted of fog and snow, cooled my ardour. I did get to realise my ambition of a solo ski ascent of Cross Fell, the descent was an exercise in snow-ploughing my way over breakable crust.
Rapaport was an established part of the freeride skiing circuit, in which athletes rapidly descend steep, rocky mountain faces, and she had appeared in many ski films and magazines.
Her death occurred nearly two years after the Chilean avalanche deaths of famed extreme skiers Jean-Philippe Auclair, a Canadian, and Carl Andreas Fransson, a Swede.
It also comes during a time of reflection within the extreme skiing community regarding the dangers of the sport. In December, skiing magazine Powder published a feature article asking if professional skiers were taking too many risks. Rapaport appeared on the cover.
That's a really great write up, thanks, so much so I don't have the slightest desire to emulate. I'll read about it instead. Mind you, I wish I had years ago.I half-entertained this idea a few years ago, but there's always a reason not to do something which is as big an undertaking as this. I dithered a bit more then came to the realisation that I wasn't getting any younger and that if I didn't do it soon then I never would. All it took was a couple of phone calls and the payment of the deposit. Everything else after that simply became inevitable.
That's a really great write up, thanks, so much so I don't have the slightest desire to emulate. I'll read about it instead. Mind you, I wish I had years ago.You could cash your pension in and pay for a chopper to take you to the top of each of the cols. :-)
That looks just fabulous. I'd love to do something like that (but my skiing skills are unlikely to ever be good enough, and there too many other things I want to do more).Here you go. Eight days to walk it plus a day either side to travel and prepare. (http://mountaintracks.co.uk/trip/classic-haute-route)You do have to be able to ski pretty much any type of snow, but if that puts you off, you could always do it as a Summertime trek. I think it takes two or three days more.
It was. And who knows, I might get to repeat it. I sat Joe down when we got back to go through the photos. His eyes were out on stalks. "Will you still be able to do that in three years ?" Cheeky sod. Yes, of course I will. He's already building it into his post-education plans.Well, Covid interfered a bit, so we'll be three years later than originally envisaged, but I'm about to finalise dates for a repeat run with mini-hatler this coming Winter. Better get fit.