Alpine Passion: Chamonix winter adventures

It was about time for some good skiing in the Alps. An intense January with studies and work for the British Army had taken up all of my time. I was eager to come down to Chamonix and was inspired to see what the mountains would offer this time.

My big wish was to find them all covered in deep fluffy snow and it turned out that finally, that wish would come true.

The truth is that during the previous years, my winter weeks in the Alps have rarely given the best snow conditions. Coming down to the alps with too many fixed objectives can be tricky. However, if you have an open mind about what to do, often the opportunities open up for things you didn't even think about in the start.

It was "bad" weather (good actually, it snowed!) when I arrived the 6th February. My friend Ulrika Dahlgren and I decided to go to Courmayeur by the tunnel under Mont Blanc. The road was full of lorries and french cars struggling to get up to the tunnel. I realised that most people here are still driving with their summer tyres! Very peculiar if you ask someone living in the north of Norway...!

A snowy day in Courmayeur, Ulrika skiing

Ulrika enjoying Italian good food in Courmayeur

Courmayeur forest on a bad weather day is a good day

Courmayeur delivered! We had a fantastic day, skiing in deep powder in the forest where we had visibility. Italian food tastes just delicious and we went back to Chamonix excited and happy after a fun day in the snow.

Morgan and me keeping close when alpine climbing during Haglöfs photo week

The next day, weather was better together with Oscar and Boel, and we went up for a couple of runs at Grand Montets, the biggest skiing area in Chamonix. It was nice to catch up with friends I had not seen in a long time.

When monday arrived, it was time for me to start a week of work for Haglöfs, filming and making pictures with Morgan and Bjarne Salen, Ulrika Asp and Anna Nyberg. We were going to focus on alpine style climbs and for that reson, Chamonix is just perfect.

Parts of our team: Bjarne, Anna, Morgan and me

Alpine climbing above the Bosson glacier

Bjarne, Morgan and our fantastic Ulrika, gearing up for an alpine filming session at Cosmiques ridge

We had a good variety of weather and adventure during photo week. Alpine climbing from Aiguille du Midi, ice climbing in Italy and Vallorcine, skiing at Helbronner and many laughs filled our days.
The photo week turned out as fun and intense as usual. When the Sunday came, I was tired and pleased for the experiences we had made.

Me and Bjarne in photo action

Myself in drytooling mode in Cogne

We're climbing on the north W face of Cosmiques ridge

I'm enjoying a sunny day at Cosmique ridge

The 17th I picked up my friend Stephanie Churlet at the airport in Geneva for an upcoming 10 days of more adventure.
Our plan was to travel to the Dolomites in Italy but because of heavy snowfall and bad weather, the conditions were too critical. Instead we went back to Chamonix for 2 days of good skiing!
None of us had skied down the Pas de Chevre, so we decided we'd spice up the experience a little and went for the couloir Rectiligne.

Prepping a rapell over the rocks in the start of Rectiligne

Steph ready to rapp down

I'm on my way down the Rectiligne, yihaaa!

It was a good weather day, still, no one skied down towards the Rectiligne and we ended up having the whole couloir and Pas de Chevre for ourselves! I was very surprised, it felt like a rare privilege to have such an experience.
Chamonix skiing sites are often crowded and because of being the home to many talented skiers, even the steeper runs are often well travelled during good weather days.

Stephanie in Rectilighe

Steph down the Rectiligne behind, fun to have it for ourselves!

Stephanie and I continued to Italy and to Gressoney and Alagna for a little week of more skiing. I'll write more about that later on...!

Some days later I returned to Chamonix and had the pleasure of continuing exploring the classical steeper ski lines such as the Cosmique couloir. This time, the expereince was quite the difference from the one we had when skiing the Rectiligne. At Cosmiques couloir, it was just too many people aiming for the same objective.
We waited for the rappel over an hour and the party before us performed horribly by rappelling off their rope, losing skis, swearing and shouting bad words to everyone around and honestly, making the whole experience very dangerous for people under them. That is the true down side of easy accessible runs...

Looking down in the couloir Cosmiques

Ulrika rapping down from Col de Cosmiques

The crowded Couloir cosmiques...

Anyways, we ended up having a nice day and were rewarded with really nice snow further down the mountain. And it's actually quite a wonderful thing to be able to ski more than 2600 altitude meters in one single run. That together with all the majestic mountains, are what makes Chamonix a special place!