TWO FEET OF FRESH BLANKETS LA GRAVE

TWO FEET BLANKETS LA GRAVE, FRANCE
After Two Weeks of Mild Temps, France Scores Deep Pow

Words: John Stifter
Photos: Gabe Rogel and John Stifter

In La Grave, one of the world’s ski mountaineering meccas, skiers usually measure the vertical feet they accumulated that day rather than how many feet of new snow fell in 24 hours.

We awoke yesterday morning to a mere two to three inches on the ground down in this stunning valley swallowed by the towering peaks of the Alps. The new snow was an appetizing treat since France has experienced mild weather with little precipitation the last two weeks. But we had no idea the mountain received nearly two feet, rather than a few inches, up high.

In town with the Steep Skiing Camp clinic, the camp founded by the late Doug Coombs and his wife Emily, we schralped mini pillow lines and spines amidst the bare larch trees native to this region in southeast France. Although the new snow provided for a soft cushion for cliff popper landings and the occasional faceshot, we elected to ski the 7,000-foot-long couloirs that La Grave is renowned for later in the day despite the low visibility due to foul weather.

What followed proved to be the deepest day of our crew’s collective season. We scored face shot after shot in the thigh-deep while descending in a white cloud on the glacier. After descending the featureless glacier, the granite-formed couloirs reappeared making for clearer and even deeper turns. The fogginess of the foul weather prevented us seeing much in the distance, which in turn, had me thinking our run was near completed. Touche. Soon enough, Steep Skiing Camps directors Miles and Liz Smart, affixed ropes into anchors and we were rappelling down into another untouched couloir full of tasty powder. Seven thousand vertical feet and two feet of thigh-deep snow later, and La Grave was the place to be.