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GRAN PARADISO AND BERNER OBERLAND SKI TOURING

The previous week was my last week of ski guiding in the Alps this winter/spring. I had one regular client, we had one week and the only plan we had was to go where the weather was good and try to climb some nice summits and ski good snow.
When we met in Chamonix monday morning we decided to go to Italy and Gran Paradiso. We went to Vittorio Emanuelle II hut the same day and climbed Gran Paradiso on Tuesday – the only 4000m peak that lies wholly within Italy. The weather was fantastic and the snow was as good as it gets on the upper 500 meters. The same afternoon, after a nice Italian lunch in Aosta, we drove to Lauk in Switzerland, jumped on the train and ended up un Grindelwald on the north side of Berner Oberland in the evening. The weather forecast promised at least two more days of warm, nice weather. Berner Oberland is busy in April and we still hadn’t  managed to get any hut-reservations when we took the Jungfraubahn to Jungfraujoch on Wednesday morning. But calling the huts from the glacier after starting the skiing we finally got reservations on the huts we wanted. The same day we climbed Grosses and Hinter Fiescherhorn, both 4000m summits. An amazing day where we were above the clouds all day until we skied down, in no-visability, to the Finstraarhorn Hut. Next morning we climbed Finstraarhorn 4274m, skied back to the hut and then skinned up to Grünhornlücke and skied down to the Konkordiahut. Well, we had to climb 645 steps (Petter counted) to get to the hut. For friday the forecast was not ideal, but we decided to try Grosses Grünhorn, another of the Berner Oberland 4000meters. The weather tuned out to be quite good after all, but for various reasons we decided to turn around some hundred meters below the summit. We still had a long way to go over to Lötschenlück and down to Blatten, more than 16 km. Finally down it started raining and we started the journey back to Chamonix by bus, train and car. And when I counted, I realised I had summited 12 different 4000m peaks the last 12 days.
Saturday the weather was terrible so we decided not to go skiing, instead I ended up doing 1350 vertical meters of intervals on skimo race-gear with my Norwegians friends Ola and Ola who was visiting Chamonix.  So no rest day. Sunday, Petter and me skied good snow in sunny weather in Grandes Montets – a nice way to finish of the season.
This week I’ve had two more days training on skimo race gear and a bit of bouldering. A hectic period is finally over. Except for one day when I was lying in bed with fever, I’ve been skiing every day for the last 49 days.
Now it’s time to pack and leave Chamonix for this time.
A bientot!

GUIDING 4000 METER SUMMITS IN ZERMATT AND SAAS FEE

Last week I was guiding in the mountains around Zermatt and Saas Fee. At the end of the week we wanted to ascent Signalkuppe. We had three great days of acclimatization on Breithorn, Alphubel and Stralhorn, but with bad weather and a lot of fresh snow we ended up powder skiing in Zermatt instead of doing Signalkuppe.

ZERMATT GUIDING AND A FAILED ATTEMPT ON A LONG TRAVERSE

I’ve been in Zermatt for some days now, guiding a bit and when not guiding I try to cover as much terrain anjd meters as I can. This weekend I had a group on the Monte Rosa hut. Good snow at the start and good weather at the end. We stayed two nights at the hut and did some skitouring from there.
When I finished sunday afternoon I quickly repacked my backpack, changed skies and took the lift to Kleine Matterhorn. From there I skied to Rifugio Guide Val d’Ayas on the Italian side where I spent the night. The next day I planed to do a complete traverse of Liskamm starting from Castor and ending at Signalkuppe. But I only had light skitouring gear, no climbing axes or proper crampons so I was not sure if the traverse of Liskamm would go. Liskamm is a big mountain and the ridge between the west and main summit is proper.
Conditions on Castor was super with nice tracks, but I soon realised that no one been on Liskamm for a long time. The trail breaking was hard work and I realised that the traverse would be a bit to much alone and with the gear I had. I turned around at  the west summit at 4479m. It was still early so after climbing Castor again on the way back I decided to make a bit of training out of it. I then climbed both the twins and the the main summit of Breithorn. Five 4000meter summits and 2600vertical meters was not bad after all, specially since my main plan failed.
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HAUTE ROUTE – THE CLASSIC ROUTE FROM CHAMONIX TO ZERMATT

March 31. till April 5. I had a group for the Classic Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt. After some problems at the start with closed lifts, one meter of fresh snow and considerable avalanche danger we finally started our traverse of the western Alps on April 1. The day before was spent with avalanche rescue training and touring in Les Grands Montets.
When we finally started we did Col du Passon, Col du Superioeur du Tour and had amazing snow in Val d’Arpette down to Champex where we stayed one night. The next day we started from Bourg-Saint-Pierre and skinned up to Cabane de Valsoray in sunny weather. From Valsoray we had very good conditions on the climb up to Plateau du Couloir and good snow on north-facing aspects down the Durant glacier, we spent the night at Cabane du Chanrion. For the next to days the weather forecast was not the best. When starting from Chanrion it was clear sky, but windy. We planed to do the Serpentine glacier and over Pigne d’Arolla to Cabane des Vignettes instead of  doing the boring and never-ending Otemma glacier. Soon it was cloudy and by the time we got to Passage de la Serpentine it was windy, snowing and no visibility. We did not summit Pigne and the skiing down to Vignettes was interesting in whiteout – like being inside a bottle of milk. Last day to Zermatt was another day in clouds and bad visibility, but not much wind. Some times we did see something, but we had more or less whiteout on all descents. We never saw Matterhorn and by the time we arrived in Zermatt it was raining.
It’s not always sunny on Haute Route.
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MOVIE FROM WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP IN SKI-ALPINISME

 

FFME has made a nice movie to promote ski-alpinisme. Footage from this years world championship in Pelvoux, France. Get inspired!

 

GUIDING SKI TOURING IN LOFOTEN

Last week I was in Lofoten guiding skitouring. The first days the weather was amazing. The skiing was not the best, but who cares when the view is like this.

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GUIDING SKI TOURING IN CHAMONIX

The two last weeks I’ve been in Chamonix ski touring. Mostly with clients, but I’ve also had a few days on my own. The weather has been amazing, but it’s close to three weeks since the last snowfall so its hard to find good snow. Put thanks to the cold weather, its still  to find good snow on northern aspects, also down low. Below is pictures from various tours in the Grand Sant Bernard, Les Contamines and on classic tours in Chamonix: Mont Buet, Col du Passon, Bréche Puiseux and more.

Tomorrow I start a 5 day ski touring program and it looks like the high pressure will continue for a few days more.

 

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP IN SKIMOUNTAINEERING

From february 9th until 16th it was the world championship in skialpinisme in Pelvoux-Vallouise in Les Ecrins, France. This was my first championship and my second and third competition in skialpinsme ever. Because of that, and the fact that I was sick and did not get much training in, my ambitions wasn’t very high. I started in the teams-race together with Lars Erik Skjervheim and the individual race. In the teams race we finished 19th. I’m a rookie compered with Lars Erik and he could easily made a much better time if he didn’t have to drag me around the whole course.On the individual, I finished 46., that means I was in the second half. Had some problems with my skins, but can’t blame other than myself.

Next year I will train more. Much more!

 

SKI MOUNTAINEERING COMPETITION

This weekend I participated in the national championship in ski alpinism in Norway. I’ve came third and got the bronze medal! The race vas 3 laps of almost 500vertical meters, a total of 1460 meters. I finished at 1h22min, almost 4 minutes behind the gold medalist, Ola Hovdenak. Lars Erik Skjærvheim came second.

Now I will be a part of the national team that will participate in the world championship in Pelvoux, France in February.

DESEMBER AND CHRISTMAS

December and Christmas was:
- Really cold in Norway.
- It was a lot of snow and good skiing in Chamonix.
- A lot of vertical meters on light ski-mountaineering gear.
- Miles and miles on cross-country skies.

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FAST SKI MOUNTAINEERING

Last weekend there was a training camp in Romsdalen for the fast-and-furious ski alpinists in Norway. Since I’m a big fan of moving light and fast I joined.  Ex-world champion, Alexandre Pellicier from France was there as a mentor the whole weekend witch was really good. It was fun and I learned a lot. And I got tiered! Really tiered.

 

 

 

 

 

SKARFJELL-TROLLA TRAVERSE – A TRY

It’s hasn’t been much alpine climbing this fall, partly because of conditions and bad timing, but also because I’ve had so much other things that’s been motivating me. Training in general, cross-contry skiing, running, ski touring and other things. But the weather forecast was good and conditions seemed to be good on the west-coast. I decided it was time to get out again. I teamed up with Steinar Grynning and we planed to do the full Skarfjell-Trolla traverse in Innerdalen. This is a super long alpine traverse that starts with the 10 pitch Sør-Øst hjørnet on Skarfjellet.
Conditions was amazing on Sør-Øst hjørnet, but as soon as we got higher the snow just got worse and worse. At one point it just stopped being fun and we bailed.
Short story – but below you can see some pictures.

 

 

GREAT START FOR SKI TOURING SEASON IN ROMSDALEN – NORWAY

In late October we had one BIG snow dump on the west-coast followed by nice weather. Below is some pictures from 3 amazing days of October skiing. After that it’s been variable temperatures and weather so the skiing was not great for long, but we had som nice days in between.

 

GUIDING FRENDO SPUR AND OTHER THINGS IN CHAMONIX

Since start of September I’ve been in Chamonix, mostly working. The weather has been good except of the days when I’ve not been working.
I had two regular clients, Erik and Richart, for 8 days in start of September. We did various things, but the most memorable was guiding Frendo Spur in the north face of Aiguille du Midi with Erik. Frendo is a bit bigger objective than what I usually guide, but with a regular client that I knew well, it did not fell that big. We had good conditions and used 8h30 from Refuge Plan du Aiguille to the top, 7h on the route. The other days was varied with rock climbing in the sun in Aiguilles Rouges, a day on Aiguille du Moine and two days on the Tacul Triangle.
Except of the guiding I’ve not done much in the mountains, theres been some rock climbing (and ice cream eating) in Italy and trail running in Chamonix. Now I’ll have a week in Norway before I go down to France again to spend most of October there.

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NORTIND CLIMBING AND GLACIER COURSE

The last week I’ve been in Hurrungane working as one of the instructors on a course for NORTIND (the norwegian guide association). This was a snow/ice/alpine climbing course and is the last of the summer-courses before they become aspirant guides. We stayed at the hut of the Norwegian alpine club (NTK) in Skagadalen the whole week. Skagadalen and Hurrungane is a great location for a course like this. Normally the weather is not the best on this time of the year and as usual we got a bit of fresh snow during the week which made conditions really good(?!). We had a few days on glaciers where we trained on various technics for guiding and on different rescue scenarios. We also did some climbing – Slingsbybreen to Store Skagastølstind, Procter-Ullen on Dyrhaugstind, The north-east flank on Midtre Dyrhaugstind and a few different routes on the north side of Styggedalstind. All of them routes that involves snow, ice and this week, snow-covered rock. Perfect!

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CLIMBING COURSE AND GUIDING IN HURRUNGANE

 

A few pictures from the last two weeks of work. Two weeks with climbing course with the Norwegian military academy in Hemsedal and guiding in Hurrungane in the weekends.

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GUIDING MATTERHORN

The day after summiting Matterhorn with Karine I started a new 5-day Matterhorn program with Ståle. The first day we climbing on the south face of Riffelhorn before we walked over to Hotel Flualp at 2620m. The next morning we hoped to climb Rimpfischhorn (4199m). We started in rain at night and the weather did not look to promising, but it was not to bad either. We summited in some wind, but on the descent it started snowing and the wind increased. It continued to snow/rain for the rest of the day and night. On day 3 we planed to do the full Breithorn traverse, but after all the snowfall the previous day we ended up doing only the half-traverse. On day 4 we walked up to the Hörnli hut, the weather was good and the hut was full. The next day it was a really busy day on Matterhorn. Conditions was good, but we had to wear crampons from approximately 3850m. We summited quite early and did not meet the worst queue before we were on the fixed ropes on the descent. Below are some pictures from the whole week.

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GUIDING IN CHAMONIX AND MATTERHORN

The last weeks I’ve been in the Alps guiding. From July 21.-26. I was guiding Karine on a Matterhorn program. First we had 4 beautiful days i Chamonix doing Aiguille du Moine, the Midi-Plan Traverse and the Cosmique Ridge. Then we traveled to Switzerland and Zermatt. There we walked up to the Hörnli Hut and on July 26. we climbed Matterhorn. It was a good day on Matterhorn, weather was perfect, conditions were quite good and it was not to much people. Below are some pictures from the whole week.

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MOUNTAIN GUIDING IN ROMSDALEN AND HURRUNGANE

The last weeks I’ve been busy guiding. I mostly been home in Romsdalen, but I also had a few days in Hurrungane. Weather has not been the best, low temperatures and a lot of clouds, but most of the time it’s been ok for guiding. Below is some pictures, most of them from Romsdalshorn where I’ve been a lot the last weeks.

 

 

NORTIND CLIMBING COURSE

Last week I was one of the instructor on a climbing course for NORTIND – the Norwegian IFMGA guide scheme.  We had a varied week with some rescue training a lot of theory around personality and leadership, but mostly we were climbing. We did routes on Bispen, Vengetind, Romsdalshorn and Klaua and we also did some sport climbing and bouldering.

Below is some pictures.

 

GUIDING – ROMSDALSHORN, DRØMMEDIEDERET, KVANNDALSTIND AND MORE

Summer season has started and last week I was guiding in Romsdalen. After a cold spring and june there is still a lot of snow in the mountains. Above 1100meters the snow has not consolidated yet. After a cold night there is typically a layer of break-trough crust above loose, wet snow, this makes trail breaking really hard. Hopefully there will be warmer weather soon.

Monday and Tuesday I guided Chris from UK on Romsdalshorn and Bispen. Friday – Sunday I guided Richart and Erik on Drømmediederet on Vengetind, Kvanndalstind and Bispen. Weather was varying all week, we did not have much rain, but all the clouds made a few special moments that I tried to capture. Se pictures below:

 

NORTIND GLACIER COURSE

On May 3rd til 10th I was in Jostedalen in Sogn working with the guide-training for NORTIND (Norske Tindevegledere). NORTIND is the Norwegian mountain guide association and we educate guides to become IFMGA/UIAGM/IVBV certified guide. This was a glacier course for the group who started in 2011. Andreas Haslestad, Jostein AAsen and I was the instructors.
Learn more about NORTIND here.

Below is pictures from a week on the glacier. After all, glacier is not so bad when the weather is good.

Highcamp Turtagrø, guiding the Norwegian Crown Prince and powder in Romsdalen

First week of May is normally the busiest week of the year for me, and this year was no exception. Together with the rest of Breogfjell, I organize all the guided tours and courses on Friflyt’s Highcamp at Turtagrø. That means 21 guides and around 150 clients in the mountains for three days.
I traveled to Turtagrø on monday 30. to find out about snow and glacier conditions on most of the mountains we planed to use during the camp. I did a lot of nice tours on my own the first days, going with light gear and visiting many peaks every day. The weather was much better than the skiing…
The camp was as usual super busy, more than 500 people in total. This year the Norwegian Crown Prince visited the camp. He has always been a dedicated telemarker, but this was his first time skiing in Hurrungane. I had the privilege to guide him for two days, witch was a fun experience. Saturday we had really nice weather in the morning and the snow was good. Saturday the weather was not so good, but we found some good snow.

Now I’m finally back in Romsdalen after a long winter with a lot of traveling. I don’t have much plans for May except to ski and climb as much as possible. The start has been good, skiing powder in the morning and climbing in the afternoon. Thursday 10. was a perfect day, cold in the morning and sunny. It was the fourth day with nice weather and still no tracks on the north-ridge of Vengetind. I did not expect to find good snow, but wanted to ski Vengetind anyway. The snow on the upper ridge was much better than expected and on the top I was super psyched about the descent. But I soon realized that one of the bindings was broken. FU$#!!! I had borrowed a pair of demoski (brand is unknown…) and had not bother to check if it was working as it should. So I had to walk most of the way down again, not fun!

Espen Kristiansen from Friflyt/Field Productions made a small video from one of the days I skied with Crown Prince Haakon. Here it is:

Here’s a article and some pictures from Friflyt.no

And belowe is some pictures from Highcamp and skiing in Romsdalen last week

Aiguille du Midi skiing – Cunningham (Passerelle) Couloir

Since Easter I’we been working two weekends, both off-pist skiing and ski touring. I had hoped to do some alpine climbing on my days off, but weather has not been the best for climbing. It’s been cold and snowing almost every day so the skiing been really good. At least when the lifts been open. I’ve had a few good days in Les Grands Montets, but the best one’s been on Aiguille du Midi, either skiing something on the Enveres side or on the west side.

A few months ago I bought a helmet camera, but I have not used until now. On monday I finally tried it when skiing the Cunningham Couloir (Passerelle) on Midi with Jonno. It’s the couloir that’s under the bridge on Midi. I’ve wanted to ski it for a long time and it was fun to finally do it, and to do it in good conditions. Often you can start skiing from higher than we did, but now it’s not that much snow high in the couloir and we saw no point in trying to ski on ice and rock. The Cunningham appears to be very steep when seen from the bridge, but its not that bad. And for Chamonix standards, its quite mellow. But never the less, fun skiing and abseiling off the bridge always feels a bit scary. The snow in the couloir was really good, but the Rond had been skied a lot the day before so the snow in the exit couloir was not the best. Because of the cold weather we could enjoy powder skiing all the way down to the old mid-station.
I’ve tried my best to make a small video from the experience….

Now I’ve had enough of lift queues and closed lifts in Chamonix and look forward to getting home to Norway again for spring ski-touring and rock climbing there. I go directly to Turtagrø in Jotunheimen to organize all the guided tours on High Camp so I guess it’s still a week and a half until I can ski without to much people around.

Á bientôt!

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