L'Aiguille du Midi short hike/day tour ultimate Ski: Off Piste > Chamonix off-piste

L'Aiguille du Midi short hike/day tour

Across the top of the Vallee Blanche, Glacier de Toule and La Vierge.

With the help of the Aiguille du Midi cable car the wilderness of the Vallee Blanche is just 20 minutes from the urban throng of Chamonix. It’s some contrast: cars and bars to ice and extreme terrain. This introductory tour rolls gentle skinning and stunning skiing into a dramatic journey which would be worth making just for the opportunity to drop into Italy for pasta at the Pavilion. From

the Midi, drop down the ridge and ski across the Col du Midi on the ‘classic Vallee Blanche’ trail until the main route veers leftwards. Skins on here and an hour (300m) of easy uphill to the Col de Toule. A steep but short wind scoop which is usually best side slipped with the help of the rope as a hand line leads to an ancient staircase – really, a staircase. Clunk down this, then skis on for the Toule glacier. Renowned as the spring snow descent to die for this 1200m run is on moderately angled slopes; a few route options exist though down the middle is most straightforward.

The word of caution for this tour is the reminder that it takes place in a high mountain environment. As well as needing a well acclimatised party, a downturn in the weather can pose a serious threat to safety. Sorting out problems at 3500m can be a whole different ball game – one recent winter day the cloud rolled in on us as we descended the Toule Glacier and the usual whooping ‘straightforward’ run became a cautious pitch by pitch evaluation for crevasse and avalanche risk: good visibility is everything.

Pasta’d up, whisk yourself back into the Vallee Blanche the Italian way via the cable car to the Punta Heilbronner. With luck spring snow on the South facing Toule will give way to powder in the North facing La Vierge! Either re-join the Vallee Blanche ‘piste’ through the Geant icefall or if you want yet more excitement take the La Noire version and pass through the Geant icefall on the right hand side; Mer de Glace to Montenvers, train or ski and a walk back to the bars and cars of town.

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Mountain tracks

Navigation

Avalanche gear

Away from the marked runs, you depend on your friends and your equipment should anything go wrong.

Make sure you have the best gear, available from Facewest.

Avalanche guide

Some passages in this section are extracted from Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain by Bruce Tremper, Director of the Utah Avalanche Center.
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