I'm sitting on Chamonix on a warm and sunny day. Having myself a rest day - been skiing pretty hard here with Davide, Tom and Liz and Saturday is the competition in Verbier (which, if you're up in the middle of the night you can watch live streaming here http://www.dailymotion.com/FreerideWorl ... deo=xphguo.)
Been on the road forfuckingever. I guess a little over three weeks but never sleeping in the same bed for more than a couple days is tiring. I posted a video of the Norway competition in another thread, and I just got 1st at the event in Fieberbrunn, Austria. Woot!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&featu ... Pn38hiwnnw
When not participating in the FWT I've been trying to tour and ski rad things, but its hard when you're trying to be safe, the conditions are weird, and you also have to party a fair bit with Diamond and Sparklez. But we've done a fair bit anyway, here's a brief summary:
Tried to ski some extremely big couloirs on the Dent du Jaune, some of the closest big mountains to Davide's house in Lausanne. Failed due to horrid snow in the couloirs but still got up high in a beautiful area.
Back in Cham, I skied the Glacier du Mort two days in a row, once with Dave and once with another group. Its a tour that links the Flegere area of Chamonix with the village of Le Buet and it is a pow factory.
Then, Fieberbrunn, Austria. Come for the comp stay for the powder. I missed a bunch of meetings and events in the day before the competition cause Dave and I were quite busy. (Dave's picts)
Back to Le Massif. Toured out of Le Fouly. Our intended line had no snow on it so we just rambled up under the Dolent and found a cool little n-facing line to climb and ski.
Then Liz arrived from Utah and we got after it immediately. Headed back up to the Couvercle hut for the second time in as many weeks to attempt the Couloir Croulante on the s face of Les Courtes. Got to about 3/4 height before rockfall and rapid warming turned us around. Awesome 2 days out.
The Croulante is just out of sight to the right behind the lowest-reaching rock buttress.
The snow wasn't going anywhere so we took a few days to dip down to Finale Ligure on the Italian coast to pull on some limestone and eat pizza. Turns out we mostly drank Negronis and iceskated.
Back in Cham, got a powder/wetslide filled day with everyone, finishing with a lap down the Cosmique - Bossons - Valley. Aig du Midi catching some sunset.
Life is obviously great here. But can't wait to get back to WA and get out with all of you. Miss ya'll!
