CHAM’LINES S02E01: Couloir Sud du Chardonnet

Aurélien Ducroz är tillbaka med en ny säsong av sin webserie, där han visar upp diverse fina brantåk i Chamonix med omnejd. I detta avsnitt tar han oss med till Couloir Sud du Chardonnet, och som åksällskap har han friåkningslegenden Seb Michaud och bergsguiden Stéphane Dan.

”We opted for the Argentière basin, where we knew we’d find something to speed our descent. After more than an hour of observation from the peaks of the Grands Montets, one lovely trail drew our attention. The decision was made: we’d hit the southern couloir of the Aiguille du Chardonnet, a first for all three of us!

To reach it from the peaks, we travelled down to the Argentière glacier and crossed it. It took us more than an hour to leave the moraine and 45 minutes to hike to reach the base of the couloir. No time to relax! We still had to climb the couloir before we could ski it. We took advantage of a gully that was naturally cut into the center of the couloir to go three-quarters of the way up the Aiguille, our starting point.

After three hours of trying, we made it: A lovely, firm couloir 400m long all to ourselves (and also Douds Charlet – 2011 Freeride World Tour winner for snowboarding and mountain guide- whom we happened to meet on the trail). It was a thrill to ski down the first hundred meters of pure powder, before continuing uphill (there was snow on either side of the gully) and finishing in soft, supple snow that allowed us to pick up speed and took us through a series of turns. Our challenge was successfully met, because in addition to spending a great day with friends, we also found a wondrous couloir and good snow!”

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