ski mountaineering western bernese oberland traverse 2000

In 2000 we decided to return to try to do the Western Bernese Oberland Traverse from Diablerets to Crans Montana which bad weather and injury to my knee ligaments caused us to abandon in 1999. The tour was 5 days long and we skied over 3 mountains – Wildhorn, Wildstrubel and Schwarzhorn. For the sixth day we booked a ride in a helicopter so that we could climb the Aiguille du Tour and ski down to Trient.

Guide

Jon de Montjoye

No Polenta Club Skiers

Dave Butcher, Lovejoy, Mark Rogerson, Phil Moorhouse

We are a group of friends who met one another while ski mountaineering and decided to continue to ski tour together.

Ordering Black and White Fine Art Prints

If you would like a memento of your trip or a gift, all of the black and white images are available as fine art black and white prints. All of them were taken with a Mamiya 6 camera on Ilford 120 film and are available as high quality hand made darkroom prints in a range of sizes from 40x30cm to 70x70cm (size refers to mount and frame, image is a few cm smaller).

They all have a 6 digit number at the end of the title to uniquely identify the negative to help ordering – just type this number into the search box in the World Landscapes Gallery and it will show the image and ordering information. Not all images are included so if you can’t find the ones that interest you just send me an email using the Contact page form on this website and we’ll sort out the details between us.

Thursday, 30 March 2000

Jan and I drove to Manchester Airport and flew to Geneva with British Airways Airmiles arriving a bit after 10am. After collecting our luggage we caught the ski bus to Chamonix/Argentiere. We were meeting Lovejoy and his wife Avril at the Hotel Dahu before the tour so that we could all have a few days to get our ski legs going. It was early afternoon when we arrived so we decided to quickly change into our ski gear at the hotel and do a half-day skiing on the local Argentiere slopes, some of the best in the Chamonix valley.

Friday 31st March, Saturday 1st April 2000 Argentiere and Le Tour Skiing

On Friday, Jan and I met up with Lovejoy and Avril and spent the day skiing around the Le Tour ski area, up the valley from Argentiere. On Saturday we all skied the Argentiere area in the morning and then caught the bus to Brevent and skied there and neighbouring Flegere before catching a bus back to our hotel in Argentiere. Mark and Phil arrived during the afternoon and we caught up with them later.

Sunday 2nd April 2000 Cabane de Prarochet

Jon lives just up the road from Argentiere, in Vallorcine, and picked us all up from the Hotel Dahu after breakfast. He drove us via Martigny and Aigle to the Diablerets lifts at Col de Pillon. Unfortunately, they were shut because of high winds, apparently a common occurrence for this cable car. Jon discovered that they were unlikely to open that day so we piled back into his van and he drove us back through Aigle and Martigny to Sion. After a couple of phone calls he had details of how to drive as close as possible to the hut and the best route to ski up. There was a maze of little roads to weave through eventually reaching the snow line and a blocked road near Coppet (1270m) where Jon parked and we got ready for skiing up to the hut, along the snow covered road to start with at 1.25pm, a bit of a late start! It was hot skiing up through trees for over 2 hours as we headed for the Col du Sanetsch but cut the corner off at Tsanfleuron and on to the Cabane de Prarochet at 2555m at 6.30pm. I was going really slowly and felt very sluggish, probably because of  dehydration, we expected to catch a lift and have a short day skiing up Diablerets mountain then down to the hut so I only had 0.5 litres of water with me. My bad back was also aching quite a bit after 2 hours so I was stopping every hour to rest it, my pack weighed 15.5kg (34lbs).

The rest of the group were out of sight for last hour or so but their ski tracks were easy enough to follow and we weren’t on glaciers or with steep slopes around us. As I neared the hut Phil had skied back to meet me for the last 15 minutes or so, that was a welcome surprise, especially when he offered to take my sack as well. In the hut I drank a few litres of water and then tea and that did the trick eventually joining the rest of them with a beer. We were the only ones in the hut so the guardian had only arrived a few minutes before us, but she looked after us very well.

Monday 3rd April 2000 Cabane des Audannes

It was very cold in the hut through the night, I had 4 blankets folded double over me as well as my long-sleeved T-shirt, fleece zip-polo and my fleece jacket with the hood up over my head. It was good to get moving again in the morning. Breakfast was at 6.30am and we left the hut at 7.35am, it was cold and clear. From the hut it was a wide open slope down towards the Col du Sanetsch but diverted before reaching it to the foot of the ridge leading to Arpelistock. We followed the ridge up as it narrowed but the wind was so strong that every time you took the weight off a ski slightly to slide it forward it was blown sideways. On reaching the final steeper slope to the top, about 200m below the 3035m summit, Jon decided that the wind was too strong to risk going higher and we had to leave the ridge. We turned around and skied down the ridge we’d just skied up to find a safe route down into a snowy bowl of Grand Gouilles before skiing up to a col at about 3100m at 1.55pm, north of the Col des Audannes. It was still quite windy and sunny in the middle of the day but cloudy later. From here we skied down over variable snow, including a lot of breakable crust and heavy snow, to reach the Cabane des Audannes at 3.45pm.

Once again we were the only ones in the very modern small hut and the guardian had come up especially to look after the five of us, which he did very well. Later in the early evening he propped open the door, which we thought was a bit strange at the time as it was very cold outside! A few minutes later a fox came into view and gradually plucked up the courage to come inside the hut and be fed by the guardian. That’s something you don’t see every day! The guardian then laid out the breakfast for us and left the hut to go home.

Tuesday 4th April 2000 Wildhorn, Wildstrubel Hut

We were up at 6.15am for a 6.30am breakfast of bread and jam which had been left out for us by the guardian along with 2 big flasks of hot water for tea. We packed up and left the Cabanne des Audannes at 7.30pm. We skinned up the Wildhorn without much of a view and the weather was a bit wild on the top, we went to the main summit, reaching it at 10.20am, before heading down again. There was lots of windblown snow near the top. As we descended there was some Spring snow towards the lower slopes with lots of breakable crust and heavy snow with the texture of wet cement, not very pleasant. We came down to an almost flat valley and had to put skins on and it became a lot steeper for the last section up to the Wildstrubel Hut which we reached at 3.15pm. Interesting toilet arrangement – they were extremely basic, smelly and about 100 yards from the hut!

Unfortunately, my bad back was aching quite badly before the last steep climb so I took some pain killers but it stayed painful right through the night.

Wednesday 5th April 2000 Wildstrubel, Lammeren Hut

We were up at 6.15am and eating breakfast a few minutes later. I didn’t get much sleep and none at all from 3pm as allegedly I was snoring so my friends kept waking me up to stop it. My bad back was aching badly when I got up and dressed so I took pain killers and Voltarol straight away to try and help. We left the hut at 7.30am and skinned up to the col above the Wildstrubel Hut where we took the skins off and skied down to the first section of almost flat glacier of the Plaine Morte. My calf muscles were very tight today so I stopped to stretch them several times. The weather closed in as the morning wore on with snow and low clouds as we skinned up the Wildstrubel to reach the summit. Jon signed the summit log for all of us to save a bit of time and it was still snowing. There was quite a bit of fresh powder snow as we started our descent and then it became very variable with every other sort of snow imaginable, especially the dreaded breakable crust and heavy porridge snow. For the final section we put the skins on the skis and reached the Lammeren Hut at 12.55pm.

Thankfully my back wasn’t too bad as we finished, the drugs had obviously helped and I did some exercises in the hut to free it up. Jon managed to get me a room almost to myself so that I could have a better nights sleep, it was the Winter Room (the only part of hut that is open when the guardian is not there to open the main hut). The main disadvantage was the complete lack of heating but at least I had a good nights sleep, there was room for 10 people in bunks but just me and a Swiss guide so no interruptions!

Thursday 6th April 2000 Schwarzhorn, Crans Montana

We were up at 6am and having breakfast by 6.15am but then Jon decided we’d wait to see what the weather was going to be on the local mountains. It looked like it could be a good day at last so we left the hut at 7.30pm to skin up to the Schwarzhorn, reaching the summit at 10.10am. It was sunny most of the way where we were but we could see lots of low clouds hanging over the valleys to the south and east, the mountain tops were clear everywhere and it was spectacular. Naturally I took lots of photos.

Jon took a summit photo of the 4 of us before we left for the ski down to Crans Montana. Once again it was variable snow with some fresh powder on a firm base, then breakable crust, porridge and a huge patch of avalanche debris with big lumps of ice everywhere. Lower down we joined some Crans Montana ski trails and then a piste into the resort of Aminona (at the east end of Crans Montana ski area) where we stopped for a beer at a cafe. From here we caught a bus to the funicular railway down to Sierre and then a train to Sion where Jon left us to go and fetch his car. It took him quite a while to return, it was a tricky place to get to, then he drove us back to the Hotel Dahu in Argentiere to finish the ski tour.

Friday 7th April 2000 Heli Ski Aiguille du Tour

Phil decided not to come heli skiing, it’s quite expensive and he’s from Yorkshire! Mark, Lovejoy and I were having breakfast by 7.30am and Jon came and picked us up from the Hotel Dahu and drove us along to a very large lay-by just in Switzerland near Vallorcine (Jon lives in Vallorcine, which is in France). A few minutes later a helicopter hovered above and then landed in the lay-by and at 8.45am we piled into it with our ski gear. A few minutes later we were dropped off on the upper edge of the Plateau du Trient and were above the clouds in sunshine with fresh powder snow to ski down into the Plateau bowl below.

We headed off at 9.15am after a few photos but unfortunately, my Mamiya 6 camera had developed a fault and the film winder wasn’t working properly. I discovered that I had to press the emergency wind-on button with the tip of a pen to release it and then I could take a picture (Mamiya 6 cameras fortunately have an emergency wind-on button). I did several photos like this and then discovered that the normal winder was working again, it went in for repair on my return though.

After laying down some near-perfect S’s in the snow we put skins on to ski up to the foot of the Aiguille du Tour. We left the skis and Jon pulled out the rope for us to tie on and we climbed up the rock and snow to reach the summit of the Aiguille du Tour at 11.40am. There was a good view to Mont Blanc and the nearby Aiguille du Chardonnet and Aiguille Verte. After taking a few photos it was time to return to our skis down below. From here we headed on good powder snow to the Col du Pissoir, which I’d visited before on a ski tour with Peter Cliff in 1992. From here we skied down the Glacier des Grands part-way before skinning up to the ridge above the Le Tour ski area lifts and then followed the crest of the ridge before coming down into a big bowl. There was lots of avalanche debris with heavy wet snow and breakable crust, this bit was dreadful to ski through! We eventually made our way down to the road and were all very, very tired. To finish we just walked along the road to the bar in Trient village, which we reached at 4.30pm, and all had beers to finish the day.

Saturday 8th April 2000 Travel Home

It was time to return home so I caught the ski bus from Argentiere to Geneva Airport for my flight at 2.10pm to London Heathrow (there was no direct flight to Manchester available on Airmiles when I booked), where I had a couple of hours to kill before catching the shuttle to Manchester Airport at 4.45pm, then it was home to the Peak District for a rest! I lost just over 1kg in weight and my bad back was painful for a week or so.

Mountains Skied/Climbed

Wildhorn 3248m

Wildstrubel 3244m

Schwarzhorn 3105m

Aiguille du Tour 3540m

Cameras

Mamiya 6 MF camera, 75mm lens + Ilford FP4+ 220 film (6 rolls of 24 6x6cm negatives exposed), carried in CCS Kobra Head case on neck strap and waist belt

Equipment

Ski Mountaineering Skis: Salomon X-Mountain 185cm skis

Ski Mountaineering Bindings: Fritschi Diamir bindings

Ski Climbing Skins: Fritschi Diamir Montana (purple on left of photo)

Ski Crampons: Fritschi Diamir Harscheisen

Ski Mountaineering Boots: Scarpa Denali

Crampons: Camp Arctic 10 lightweight 10 point step-in lightweight crampons

Ice Axe: Grivel Air Tech Mont Blanc 48cm

Rucksack: Outside Rock 40 litre