the haute route - ski traverse from Chamonix to Zermatt or Arolla in my case

Packing:

Even though my pack was pretty light there were a lot of little details to take care of and one big one: my boots.  On a previous 4 day back country trip my ski boots had given me bad blisters.  I did exactly what everyone tells you not to do - I bought new boots and didn't really have time to truly test them out before the trip, but I was lucky it turned out to be fine.

I brought all the the regular stuff on the check list provided by the guides - what I wish I had was my own crocs for the huts, a magazine and not the book I brought and more energy bars.  I had brought 1 per day + fruit leather, next time I will bring 2 per day.

Day 1:  ski the Mer de Glace

Beautiful sunny day, this was a day for the guides to see our skiing abilities and for the group to ski together.

Day 2: begin the traverse - night in the Trient Hut

This was the longest day and a day that we used all our equipment; skins, boot crampons, ski crampons, ice axe, and harness for descending 220 feet.  The weather was all over the place; cloudy, sunny then cloudy again.




Hut etiquette: 

• leave your skis outside or in the ski room if there is one
• leave all your sharp objects in a basket in the entry, usually with your ski boots; crampons, ice axe, probe and shovel
• grab a pair of hut slippers; usually crocs
• backpacks in your room or hall, not in the main dining area
• the groups have assigned tables for eating and are served at the table
• the dorm rooms varied from your own bunks to a platform of beds; the pillow and comforter were provided



Trient hut

 Day 3: ski from Trient Hut to Champex - bus, train, multiple trams and skied to Mont Fort hut


Woke to mixed weather conditions; whiteout, clearing.  This was a mixed transportation day; ski, climb, then ski into a resort, catch a bus, catch a train, than tram it up and ski down to the Mont Fort hut which is actually in the Verbier ski resort.




Day 4: ski from Mont Fort hut to Prafleuri hut - summit Rosa Blanche


Mont Fort hut

 

 Skinned out of the resort in overcast weather, over the col out of the ski report.  The sun broke through for great summit views on Rosa Blanche.  Skied down to the hut for the night.

Day 5: ski from Prafleuri hut to Dix hut - afternoon tour



Prafleuri hut



Cold and clear for our early start to the Dix hut, a very long traverse along Dix lake.  Afternoon touring around the Dix hut in the sun.



Day 6: ski from Dix hut to Vignettes hut

Again mixed weather day; whiteouts and clearing. Lots of climbing and then ski down to the spectacularly located Vignettes hut, perched on a rock face.



Dix Hut



Day 7: ski from Vignettes hut to Zermatt or Arolla in my case



This was going to be one of our longest days - "A full map day" as the guides referred to it.  But we woke to complete white out, howling winds and falling snow.  All the groups in the hut waited as long as we could for the weather to clear and in defeat we slowly snowplowed our way down the mountain into the town of Arolla, where we caught a taxi with another America group for Zermatt.



Vignettes hut







Guide:

NW Mountain School

Post trip beer in Zermatt

Books:

The Haute Route Chamonix - Zermatt: A guide for skiers and mountain walkers by Peter Cliff

Chamonix to Zermatt:  the classic Walker's Haute Route By Kev Reynolds



 More photos of the trip:





BIG SHEEP BASIN, WALLOWA SKI TRIP

Kitchen/Guide Tent

camp

morning beacon check before heading out for the day

Low avalanche danger determine - we proceed down one at a time 

looking back at our lap tracks  

At the end of March I am heading to France to do the famous ski traverse; the haute route, more on that later.    While I have put in a lot of ski days this winter, I have not put in any multi days of climbing and skiing and I was starting to get nervous about my upcoming adventure.  I called CB at Wallowa Alpine Huts who was happy to help me out with a few options.  I signed up for a 6-person exploration trip.  Turns out that CB/Wallowa Alpine Huts is in the process of buying Wing Ridge Ski Tours and they are exploring the areas that are new for them to be guiding in.  The purchase of Wing Ridge Ski Tours gives CB a monopoly on the huts in the Wallowas.The trip began Thursday morning with a huge breakfast at Chandler’s Inn in Joseph, OR.  After filling ourselves up with food and caffeine, we got our stuff together, checked beacon batteries, then loaded into our cars for a 30-minute drive to the parking lot where we would begin out skin up from.  The weather was beautiful – cold and sunny.

A beacon park was recently built near the parking lot and warming hut;we were able to test our beacons out before we set off over Wing Ridge.  We skinned up over Wing Ridge and did a few laps on a south facing ridge that we could ski right to the tents from.  The tent camp consisted of 4 tents; an A-frame wood shed; two guest tents that slept 5 + people, a cooking/guide tent and a sauna tent.

We quickly settled in; got a fire going to dry our clothes, then met up in the cooking tent to exchange adventures and to get to know each other.   This group was primarily from Seattle; 4 lawyers, 1 doctor, 1 chemist and me, a land use planner.  I did a lot of listening.  The group from Seattle was a close knit activity group - they did many b/c ski trips, and skied at Alpental every Wednesday night.  This was their annual guy trip, but they were very accommodating to have me crash their trip.  We all settled easily into the routine of camp; 7:00 am coffee, 7:30 breakfast, out of camp with lunches packed by 8:30, skin, ski repeat for the day, return for happy hour around 5:00 pm, dinner around 7:00, early to bed repeat, repeat.  Good living!

This trip was an excellent preparation trip for my upcoming adventure – I left with having to figure out my boot situation and blisters that need to heal.  

Luckily I have enough time for both.

RESOURCES:
Big Sheep huts
Wallowa Alpine Huts
Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center

North Cascades - AIARE Level 1 Avalanche Course

In January I headed up to Mazama Washington for an Avalanche course, the AIARE Level 1 course.  I figured that if I was going to be spending more time in the backcountry I should get smarter about understanding the conditions for both my own safety as well as those that I travel with.  The class was also an excuse to go back to the Methow Valley, North Cascades – I special spot for me. 

The class was 2 ½ days for a total of 24 hours; half of that time was spent inside.  The last day was intended to be out in the field touring around.  The class was packed, 24 people cozily crammed into the Mazama community center.  Saturday we spent a good bit of the time in the classroom learning about snow conditions, decision-making and terrain.  My big take away was – 90% survival rate in an avalanche if found in 15 minutes; that is burial to excavation.  After 15 minutes the rate of survival goes down dramatically - travel with people that know how to respond quickly!  Slope angle; 38% slope angle is the most dangerous for failure.  Concerned about the conditions = lower slope angle

Loading the Cat 

The second ½ of the day was spent outside getting familiar and comfortable with our beacons, shovel and probe.  Sunday morning we met early to board the cat for our day out in the backcountry, I was super excited to explore.  The weather did not cooperate with us that day, woke up to a ¼ inch of ice on top of the snow, ick!  Weather always changes the plan – instead of exploring potential avalanche areas we focused more on snow conditions.  

We learned how to observe the snowpack by hand hardness tests to determine relative strength of each layer, compression test by preparing a column and loading it to failure, rutschblock test to test the snowpack.  We broke out into smaller groups and did a few avalanche scenarios – 15 minutes really isn’t that much time you want to be organized!  We never had the chance to take our skins off our skis.  It didn’t really matter that we didn’t get to tour – the purpose was to learn about avalanches and how to respond and be prepared and the North Cascades Mountain Guides; Larry and Jeff did a great job ensuring that we did that in a comprehensive manner and with humor.

Larry demonstrating slope stability

Larry demonstrating the snow stiffness test;
fist, four fingers, pencil or 1 finger

Class outline:

1. Intro to decision making
2. Avalanche fundamentals
3. Plan
4. Observe
5. Choose terrain and travel wisely
6. Emergency response
7. Where to go from here

Jeff demonstrating the
Rutschblock test

 


















The class was timely – there have been several tragic avalanche fatalities in the NW this winter.  I feel better prepared for being in the backcountry, I look at slopes much differently than I did before the class.  It is dangerous out there – but like everything else get good information about the conditions, travel with safe, knowledgeable people and have fun. 

http://www.ncmountainguides.com/

http://avtraining.org/Avalanche-Training-Courses/AIARE-Level-1.html

http://www.nwac.us/

http://www.mvsta.com/ski.html

Tiffany Cruikshank 200 hour Vinyasa Teacher Training

Yoga teacher training 2012 graduation class 

Tiffany demonstrating tittibhasana

A few years ago I innocently stumbled into Tiffany’s Tuesday 4:30 class at Yoga Pearl, I did not knowing the impact is would soon have on my life.  I was in my usual hurry from work, race to change then rush into the studio.  This Tuesday I rushed in and found the room completely full.  I stood by the door nervously looking for a spot in a corner, Tiffany, not missing a beat rolled her mat up and gave me center stage.  For some people this is a great opportunity to shine, for me it was a bit intimidating and stressful to be center stage – I quickly got over it.  The class was dynamic and challenging both physically and mentally, nobody was watching me, we were all absorbed in our own practice.  After the 1 ½ + hour class I walked out a changed person, wanting to be a better yogi.

Early last summer I started thinking about the 200-hour teacher training, I have dabbled in yoga my whole life but have not had the desire to teach.  This was a four-month teacher training with two one-week retreats.  I decided to challenge myself – instead of a Hawaii yoga retreat in January I went for the four-month yoga training that included a Hawaii retreat.  At the time I wasn't sure I wanted to teach yoga, I was more interested in deepening my own practice.

Back October I drove to Whidbey Island for the Yoga retreat and beginning of the training.

http://spontaneousplanner.blogspot.com/2011/10/yoga-pearl-vinyasa-teacher-training.html

After the Whidbey Island retreat a group of us met in Portland every Sunday learning about 
(the out of town people watched videos of the class):

• Meditation
• Physiology
• Sequencing
• Therapeutics
• Pre & Postnatal yoga
• Ayurveda
• Sanskrit
• Yoga Sutras
• Chakras
• Yoga History
• Business

In addition to the weekly classes, there was anatomy homework, a cadaver lab, book report and 10 hours of observations.  I was back in school with yoga homework! 

Second week of January – fresh off a plane from Alaska I jumped on a plane to Kona for the final week of yoga training.  -10 to 80 degrees was a welcome change.  The week was intense, lots to cover and lots of personalities. 

Every morning we started at 7 am with a vigorous two plus hour yoga practice, breakfast, 2 hour review and teacher training, afternoon break, 4-5 pm review, 1 hour restorative practice that often started with a handstand, dinner.  This was not a vacation.

30 minute student teaching

Mid-week we started our 30-minute practice teaching to the class; half the class observed and the other half took the class.  After the class each person got feedback from their peers and the teacher.  That was really the final exam – it was so interesting and informative to watch people’s different teaching styles; what they focused on and how they lead a class. 

30 minute student teaching

Being one of the more physically inflexible people in the training I focused my class on grace and how grace shows up in your life.  How to be graceful in an inflexible body. I was surprised that I really liked teaching the class and putting the class together, normally I don't really like a lot of attention focused on me in large groups.  Yoga has been an important stabilizer and calming tool for me in my life, I was able to get out of being scared and able to share something that has brought so much to my life - it is fun to share.

beach time!

I did not meet my 2011 goal of an unsupported handstand, not even close!  But I can do a supported handstand – one step at a time.

Resources:

Tiffany Cruikshank
Yoga Pearl
Hawaii Island Retreat