Pte. Vouasson

difficulty: f (descent AD)
month: April
altitude: 3490 m.

This on of my favourite tours. Reason is simple: it goes high and it is easy all the way up. No technical parts, zero. Crowding was minimal. But I had that fortune to meet a teacher from Laussane and apparently very good skier. We met on the parking place and I was very lucky with the company because otherwise I would have to go alone to the summit I had never been to. So we became friends.
 

Some practical info about that tour? Hm. No need. It is very simple. Only a mist or bad weather could make some difficulties on this tour, but there is a hut in the middle of ascent. And anyway, today everybody uses GPS tracker, so even a mist wouldn't problem. Maybe only dummy guys like me, who are happy with only compass and map, could take this info seriously.

On the picture bellow, I am crossing an avalanche in only pass one has to cross on the tour - when entering the glacier. This avalanche was in my opinion triggered on purpose by mountain rescue. It fell down from the slope on the right from photographer point of view where the slope is roughly 20-25 degrees. I wouldn't expect any large danger in colder days. Powder avalanche is very improbable.

Descent is marked red on the map. It was cool. Since I was with very experienced skier, I fully put the rout choice on him. And it was worth. Even on ascent, we had to put our skies down couple of times due to lack of snow, with this descent path, we could reach the road with no interrupts.

Trofea Pez Ault

This race takes place close to Chur in Switzerland. Wonderful track, completely out of piste leading almost to the summit of Pez Ault. The winner time is aground two hours (I rather do not report my time.) However, everybody that finishes this race can be satisfied no matter of result.  

At first place: big thanks to organizers. All details can be found at website: http://www.trofea.ch/


Profesional video above speaks for everything. However,  I have to write few remarks from my point of view in order to provide some info to others but also for me myself if I decide to run it again next year. Firstly, the snow ridge in the movie looks scary, but it is not. Running there is very comfortable. Skiing down first gully would be very enjoyable even with racing skis, but we got terrible snow this year and I was quite happy to fall only once there. This descent is followed by long ascent going above 2900 meters. Counting the fact that it goes high and one is already exhausted, I would say that this is the key part of the trip. There might be some risk of avalanche, so better to be fast. Descent is again fine, maybe doable with cross-country skis if conditions are better. The steepest part of the race is the gully on the picture below. It is ok, no need of iceaxe or crampons. But the gully and the traverse before are definitely the worst place in the race concerning avalanches. I strongly believe that organizers have it under control, but mother nature can be sometimes stronger than human intellect. After this gully, there is long descent which is again very nice and with no obstacles. It means it is really fine since I am not the best skier.

Once more big thanks to organizers and I hope I did a good advertisement for this race.