Me&myself - Conquering Mt Dolent

Ok, I decided that I was posting too much pictures of my friends, and not enough of myself. Thus, I was sort of dismissing my French nationality, which is associated with being show off, proud, and stuff like that... So this post is all about me!

Me looking strong, before the climb. I know, that's easy! :D

Me and the funny little hut. Believe it or not, it can accommodate up to 14 people, with a "relative" comfort...

Me in the inside. We tested the "relative" comfort, as we were 13. I slept well nevertheless...

Me making dinner at 5pm (?!).

Me getting into trouble after I lost time taking pictures of the sunrise. My climbing buddy wasn't very happy about that... oops...

Me looking soooooooo strong! :D Note the tilted helmet which I kept all the day long. Classy, isn't it?

On that one, I guess I am looking like I am pooing.

Looking strong again, at the summit of Mt Dolent. At that stage, I got into trouble again cos I coiled the rope wrong, and it was full of knots... Oops again...

Skiing on grass...

Back to the car. Looking as proud&strong as a Frenchman can be, with Mt Dolent in the background!

Acknowledgments: Thanks to Vanessa for taking most of the pics. But maybe I should not thank her cos of all her nasty remarks during these 2 days, thats very bad for my ego! ;o)

Ski mountaineering around Grand-St-Bernard

Romaric: "How fit are you at the moment"
Xavier: "Depends for what..."
Romaric: "1800 of altitude gain. There is a steep-ish couloir on the way-up as well..."
Xavier: "Wooh, thats a bit long, but I guess I'll manage to follow"

That was his error! We climbed to the top of Mont Vélan (3727m) via the Hannibal couloir on the west side, and went down via the Valorsey glacier. I can tell you that Xav' had hard time to go up to the top, especially during the ascent of the 500m long* couloir... But, he did impressively well assuming that his first skitour of the year! Respect man.

His efforts were rewarded by a fantastic (with all the stresses Francis can put on this word!) ski run via the normal route, with 1000m of snow powder, followed by 1000m of excellent spring snow... and impressive scenery! Definitely one of my best (if not the best) skitour ever! I am sure Vanessa will confirm it, as well as Xavier when he will have forgotten the pain** of the way up! ;o)

Romaric

* the length, something I forgot to mention to Xavier... He may not have join if I would have! :D
** I know Travis, "it doesn't have to be fun to be fun", so I told Xavier!