Skiers: Punx/Lil Punk
Date: January 5th 2005
Route: Point Du Chardonnet
Aspect: North
Vertical Drop: 300m
The Les Couloirs Du Chardonnet is a
300m, 40 degree shelterd north facing couloir on the point of chardonnet. With
it been easy assemble from the top of the grattalu chairlift. It has to be the
most skied lines in the espace killy.
On January 5th, lil punk and i decided to ski the les couloirs du chardonnet.
We woke up to flat light and 0 visibility, with 15 to 25 mph winds. The temperature
at 2100 meters was -15 in the morning, slowly rising to -10. Then dropping,
back down to -20 later in the day.
Fast Forward To 11.00am
After a slow start, we finally
reached the bottom of the the col at 11.00am and with no great change in the
weather by this time. We decided to wait it out for 15 minutes, to see if the
mist would clear enough. The weather didn’t improve much. So,
we made the decision to hike up the col, to have a look any way.
Fast Forward To 11.10am
Standing at the top of the couloir.
Watching a group of 4 people setting up an anchor, so they could rappel in, was
a joke. Now we were seriously thinking about
turning around, but we waited it out. In the end lil punk decided he didn’t
want to ski the les couloirs du chardonnet, so i was left to ski it solo in
rubbish weather. Not a big deal.
Fast Forward To 12.00pm
One turn, two turns. I thought fuck
it. I may as well side step down the top section, like every one else did.
After i got past the top section. The snow got a we bit better. It was still
chopped up powder from the heavy traffic, but still ok to ski. From the exit of
the couloir, i traversed to the right and crossed some old avalanche debris. After a short traverse, i found some fresh powder all the way back to the trail.
