Sump To Summit

Spending a week skiing around Chamonix, we couldn’t resist ticking this off the bucket list! We got a mid-morning lift up the Aiguille du Midi, which left us plenty of time to enjoy the longest run in the world!

After queuing to get onto the glacier, we eventually set off. Within 20m, I was in a pile on the floor in absolute shock! (I basically never fall). Not only that, but I had to suffer the embarrassment of skiing down the first section on one ski, as the other had disappeared in the carnage that I’d created. I re-attached the ski once retrieved, set off, and within 10m was on my arse again – something wasn’t right here!… I discovered that my binding had become faulty and the mechanism wasn’t quite locking properly… A careful ski from here then, trying not to put too much pressure on that binding in the turns.

The first half of the Vallée Blanche really lived up to its reputation! Skiing down a beautifully wide glacier, picking the lines which still had a little fresh snow remaining.

Despite the popularity of the world-famous route, it was very easy to get away from the crowds – there were so many route options. We took what looked to be the longest route, as the lift had been £90, so we wanted our money’s worth in that incredible environment.

Around halfway down, the route bottlenecks just below the Refuge. This turned into some of the most mogully skiing I had ever encountered. Trying hard not to put too much pressure through the binding, I had to make the descent quite quickly. The view from the glacier below was stunning; the sudden steepness meant there were folds and boulders the size of houses. Staggering!

From this point, the route becomes much flatter. Though the views are amazing, it definitely felt like we’d had the best of it. We stopped for lunch before rejoining normal civilization. On the last section (around the big corner), we found ski tracks leading into a crevasse – this looked very exciting! With a ‘what could possibly go wrong’ attitude, we dropped into the crevasse and followed the narrow corridor down. All of those years messing around in the trees at the sides of the piste turned out to be perfect training! The crevasse was often narrower than the length of the skis, which meant you had to scrub speed where possible, and react quickly to obstacles when traveling a little faster than you’d like! It felt very much like being on a roller coaster, the only issue was they weren’t hire skis, they were our own, so we really wanted to avoid damaging them.

After quite a while, we started to wonder how we were going to get out of the crevasse!? Would it level out eventually, or would we have to deploy the ice axes/screws and rope we were carrying? We continued to follow the well-worn ski tracks and the crevasse eventually allowed us to escape. What an adventure in itself!

We skied as far down the glacier as we could and had to walk the last 20m to the stairs. We climbed up, then got on the new lift, and then on the packed train back down to Chamonix.

We finished the day with tea and beers on the high street, followed by dinner at a lovely burger bar. A brilliant day out, and one which I would thoroughly recommend!