Easter Ski Tour - Day 3 (A Photo Diary)
An uncertain start, a glacier crossing and an abseil into a couloir. Day 3 (and final day) of our 2022 Easter ski tour delivered on all types of fun. This is the visual diary, along with some words.
Mist so thick you could cut it with a knife.
That was what greeted us on the morning of our final day of ski touring.
As we discussed our options over an early breakfast (getting stuck at high altitude, in whiteout conditions, is definitely not on the recommended list), we had to come up with a plan.
So we did:
We would make our way to the summit of the Wisshore, a short skin up directly behind the Wildstrubel mountain hut, then reassess.
The start was not promising.
However, as we worked our way towards the summit, we caught a brief glimpse of the mist clearing higher up.
A small - hesitant - sigh of relief.
We might just get lucky.
The last few steps, as we crested the ridge line, revealed a magnificent view over the Glacier de la Plaine Morte. The sun had started burning away the mist, and it seemed we would have an amazing day of ski touring ahead.
Higher up where we were, the mist had cleared, but a bank of mist and cloud still hung over parts of the glacier lower down.
Combined with the texture of the glacial ice, the ski down onto the glacier was an other worldly experience.
I hung back a bit so I could capture some images with my fellow ski tourers in them, so as to provide a sense of scale to this surreal environment.
This of course meant I was the last one down onto the glacier, having to make up some distance.
As it happened, no one bothered to mention to me the glacier was rock hard.
Yes, I know glaciers consist of ice, and are thus hard by default.
But normally they are covered by snow to some extent.
Not in this case.
A few days of sun and warmer temperatures, followed by freezing temperatures overnight, had made sure of that.
Which meant I carried a bit too much speed onto it, and with legs resembling shock absorbers going up and down as I tried to work my way over the rock hard undulations, I came uncomfortably close to having a more in depth look at the glacier surface.
I’ll know better next time!
On the other side of Plaine Morte was the big objective for the day:
The Wildstrubel.
And even though we were already high up, the ascent from the glacier to it’s summit is not to be underestimated. The start is gradual, but the gradient ramps up quickly.
You also traverse a few potentially no fall zones, especially in icy conditions - those kick turns became an art in concentration.
When we reached the top it was cold with strong gusts of wind, which meant our summit sojourn would be brief.
But I could finally manage to herd everyone together for a quick group picture.
This is no easy task, as no one sits around waiting for the photographer when they want to get going - which means you have to be twice as fast as everyone else.
But it’s always worth it.
The descent from the summit is a gentle glide to the top of the couloir of the same name.
This route is not always possible to ski down.
It is very steep at the entry point, can be icy and with strong gusts.
And this was going be my first attempt at skiing it. Needless to say I had a healthy amount of uncertainty. In fact, when we approached the top of the couloir I started backtracking back up a bit, thinking we will choose the long way around instead.
I mean, the wind was howling, it was icy, and you cannot see past the first two turns.
You only see the valley floor with the village of Lenk 2km below.
On the plus side, I was with a group of experienced locals who would guide me through any tough spots if possible (or needed).
Time to put the big boy pants on, I suppose.
For reference, I included two mobile phone video clips (below) to give you an idea about the conditions as we prepared our abseil into the couloir.
I took a few deep breaths.
And as I inched forward I tried to channel all the ski touring experience I had gained in my few short years of enjoying the sport.
The snow was icy and chunky, but I could make some careful turns.
After the initial steep section, the gradient eased off to what I would previously have considered steep, but now felt like a gentle slope down.
We paused to regroup.
Looking back up to what we had just ski’d down, I realised I was in that mood you have when you had just completed something you weren’t sure about, but made it.
It felt amazing.
Once the elation subsided, we made our way further down. Our lunch stop overlooking the Simmental Valley was waiting.
Here I had a swig of whiskey to settle the nerves.
Normally you would have a sip on the summit, as a small celebration, but I forgot (group picture time constraints, remember?)
By now the temperature had climbed sufficiently (and we were lower down) to turn the frozen icy snow from the night, into “sulzige schnee” (spring time corn for the Americans).
And we had some fun skiing the last few hundred meters down.
This late in Spring it is anyone’s guess where the snow will end, after which we would have to walk the rest of the way out.
Fortunately, we could string together thinner and thinner patches.
But at some point it was unavoidable.
We had to put our ski’s on our backpacks and walk the rest of the way out of the valley. It didn’t feel that long though, as we had lots of stories - and stoke - to share along the way.
Until the next tour!
🍻⛷️🇨🇭🏔️
Have you ever done a ski tour / multi day ski tour?
Did you make some images - why not share them (don’t let them collect dust for as long as I did)!?
Simply hit reply and let me know / comment below.
PS - Next week we’ll change gears from adventures, to the editing side of photography, and look at three ways to convert a colour image into a b/w image (in Lightroom and Photoshop).
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Until next time ✌🏽.
Cornelius
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I was holding my breath and re-taking another with every new paragraph! I was right there touring with you! This was a great read as I was teleported to a day out in the mountains. Exceptional capture.
What an adventure!!!