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!