The blue sky Saturday attracted a crowd so we barely got into the Le Chable parking at 9:10am. On Jan. 16 Liz and I skied Chaussures and Gentianes off piste routes to Tortin, but it clouded over after 2pm so I did not get a shot at Mont Gele, which I had only skied in 2004 on my first Alps trip with NASJA.
So this time I headed for Mont Gele after warmup cruisers on Attelas and the Lac chairs, where Liz was amused by this jacket she’s seen a few times.
The Mont Gele tram holds 45 people and has a 15 minute turnaround time. I got up there a bit after 11am with this view down to the Lac chairs.
And here’s the view down the Attelas chair toward Verbier and Le Chable.
The steep chalk off the northeast face was uniformly fantastic.
This area must have been well sheltered from the wind that produced so much sastrugi at Val d’Isere and Zermatt.
However I ventured cautiously due to ample signs of a cliff band.
Past the cliff band this is the view up with my ski line in red.
Yellow ski route poles follow the purple line to a saddle and then continue down the sunny south side.
The other set of ski route poles are in the open bowl at right in this view up.
From where I took the above two pics, I had a straightforward ski to join the skiroute here.
View down from there:
Lower down the Tortin – Gentianes tram comes into view.
There are four skiers dead center in the pic above. I skied that same diagonal line below the tram tower on Jan. 16.
The ski route poles are on the sunny side of the canyon with a partially crunchy traverse, eventually going into shade here.
The snow is better on the other side but that canyon is deep and I wanted to avoid hiking out of it like the skier in the bottom of the picture.
After passing through the notch in that pic the snow became icy. This was at 7,800 feet per my watch, likely the rain line from the Jan. 17-18 storm. Val d’Isere’s snow in the Grands Vallons off piste turned from chalk to hardpack at the same elevation.
Liz skied Chaussures and we met at Tortin where she was delighted to see this Great Pyrenee, her favorite dog.
Mustang Powder had one as a lodge dog most of the years I skied there.
I took a lap on Chaussures myself.
Snow was excellent if you traversed out here skier’s right. Chaussures was popular as the exit piste starts near that rain line so the off piste part is still all in good snow.
We left Tortin via the tram and skied to La Chaux, including the same mellow off piste section as on Jan. 16. I then made my way to the Attelas gondola for another shot at Mont Gele at 2pm.
While riding the tram I observed a group skiing a west facing couloir, skiers circled in red. First zoomed views:
And here’s the big picture:
Here a skier is about to drop into the south face from the top, view of Grand Combin at center distance.
I looked over the edge and suspected correctly that the direct south was already past its prime. I followed the ski route I marked in purple earlier as I could get in a few more turns in that steep chalk before traversing through the notch.
At the top of the chalk I took a profile picture of the northeast face skiroute leading to Tortin.
Approaching the notch:
South side starts mellow.
View of south side bowl from below:
Direct south facing was quite heavy, probably at its best around 1pm. The snow was more supportable skier’s left which tilted more southwest. I dawdled quite a bit on this run, so skiers from the next tram were approaching.
I skied to La Chaux and rode its tram to Gentianes. I hoped the far skier’s right of that skiroute to Tortin might have softened in the sun but not really.
It became hard at the same elevation as the run from Mont Gele. Skier’s right did have fewer moguls and people scraping the hard snow vs. being close to the yellow skiroute poles though.
I rode the Chaussures gondola, skied a short off piste down to Lac on the now illuminated northwest slope. Then I skied with lots of weekenders from Attelas down to Madran. End of day Verbier is quite intense with skier traffic but at least it’s in the afternoon sun most of the time. The 1936 yurt where we met Bob Mazerei Jan. was hopping with a DJ and this ski parapente coming in for a landing.
On her way down Liz got a great pic of Verbier with Savoleyres in right background.
I skied 22,500 vertical, and unlike the other days with quantity more than half of it was off piste. So our trip finished on a very high note.
So this time I headed for Mont Gele after warmup cruisers on Attelas and the Lac chairs, where Liz was amused by this jacket she’s seen a few times.
The Mont Gele tram holds 45 people and has a 15 minute turnaround time. I got up there a bit after 11am with this view down to the Lac chairs.
And here’s the view down the Attelas chair toward Verbier and Le Chable.
The steep chalk off the northeast face was uniformly fantastic.
This area must have been well sheltered from the wind that produced so much sastrugi at Val d’Isere and Zermatt.
However I ventured cautiously due to ample signs of a cliff band.
Past the cliff band this is the view up with my ski line in red.
Yellow ski route poles follow the purple line to a saddle and then continue down the sunny south side.
The other set of ski route poles are in the open bowl at right in this view up.
From where I took the above two pics, I had a straightforward ski to join the skiroute here.
View down from there:
Lower down the Tortin – Gentianes tram comes into view.
There are four skiers dead center in the pic above. I skied that same diagonal line below the tram tower on Jan. 16.
The ski route poles are on the sunny side of the canyon with a partially crunchy traverse, eventually going into shade here.
The snow is better on the other side but that canyon is deep and I wanted to avoid hiking out of it like the skier in the bottom of the picture.
After passing through the notch in that pic the snow became icy. This was at 7,800 feet per my watch, likely the rain line from the Jan. 17-18 storm. Val d’Isere’s snow in the Grands Vallons off piste turned from chalk to hardpack at the same elevation.
Liz skied Chaussures and we met at Tortin where she was delighted to see this Great Pyrenee, her favorite dog.
Mustang Powder had one as a lodge dog most of the years I skied there.
I took a lap on Chaussures myself.
Snow was excellent if you traversed out here skier’s right. Chaussures was popular as the exit piste starts near that rain line so the off piste part is still all in good snow.
We left Tortin via the tram and skied to La Chaux, including the same mellow off piste section as on Jan. 16. I then made my way to the Attelas gondola for another shot at Mont Gele at 2pm.
While riding the tram I observed a group skiing a west facing couloir, skiers circled in red. First zoomed views:
And here’s the big picture:
Here a skier is about to drop into the south face from the top, view of Grand Combin at center distance.
I looked over the edge and suspected correctly that the direct south was already past its prime. I followed the ski route I marked in purple earlier as I could get in a few more turns in that steep chalk before traversing through the notch.
At the top of the chalk I took a profile picture of the northeast face skiroute leading to Tortin.
Approaching the notch:
South side starts mellow.
View of south side bowl from below:
Direct south facing was quite heavy, probably at its best around 1pm. The snow was more supportable skier’s left which tilted more southwest. I dawdled quite a bit on this run, so skiers from the next tram were approaching.
I skied to La Chaux and rode its tram to Gentianes. I hoped the far skier’s right of that skiroute to Tortin might have softened in the sun but not really.
It became hard at the same elevation as the run from Mont Gele. Skier’s right did have fewer moguls and people scraping the hard snow vs. being close to the yellow skiroute poles though.
I rode the Chaussures gondola, skied a short off piste down to Lac on the now illuminated northwest slope. Then I skied with lots of weekenders from Attelas down to Madran. End of day Verbier is quite intense with skier traffic but at least it’s in the afternoon sun most of the time. The 1936 yurt where we met Bob Mazerei Jan. was hopping with a DJ and this ski parapente coming in for a landing.
On her way down Liz got a great pic of Verbier with Savoleyres in right background.
I skied 22,500 vertical, and unlike the other days with quantity more than half of it was off piste. So our trip finished on a very high note.
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