Mont Blanc du Tacul 4 August '09
Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 12:26 am
Monday was a storm day, I tried to ski but just found the top of the Aiguille du Midi inside a very damp cloud 
- it's not often you see drizzle at 3800m !
Back again tuesday morning, bright and sunny and crisp. A few carefull turns down the ridge (this picture is from my previous ski trip up here)
followed by some open sweaping turns, a crevase jump and some straight lining brings me to the col du Midi and the start of my climb
A quick look around
I skiined up the first 300m or so, then decided to follow the nice bootpack made by all the mountainers. Easier than skiining on a 40-45 degree slope.
At the top Mont Maudit and Mont Blanc loom large above
The upper part of the mountain was wind hardend but not real ice. As soon as I dropped below things improved. 10 to 20cm of fresh on a hard to icy base. sometimes with a little windcrust.
Great views down into the valley
Kept stopping to say hellow to all the mountainers sloging their way up
Most of them thought my skis were too wide. I was glad of the width whenever I hit patches of crust.
A realy nice day out, nice but not stellar conditions. When i got back down to the Col du Midi things had softend up a lot. I didn't need skins to make headway until the steepest part of the climb back to the lift. By which time it was best to walk anyway.
- it's not often you see drizzle at 3800m !Back again tuesday morning, bright and sunny and crisp. A few carefull turns down the ridge (this picture is from my previous ski trip up here)
followed by some open sweaping turns, a crevase jump and some straight lining brings me to the col du Midi and the start of my climb
A quick look around
I skiined up the first 300m or so, then decided to follow the nice bootpack made by all the mountainers. Easier than skiining on a 40-45 degree slope.
At the top Mont Maudit and Mont Blanc loom large above
The upper part of the mountain was wind hardend but not real ice. As soon as I dropped below things improved. 10 to 20cm of fresh on a hard to icy base. sometimes with a little windcrust.
Great views down into the valley
Kept stopping to say hellow to all the mountainers sloging their way up
Most of them thought my skis were too wide. I was glad of the width whenever I hit patches of crust.
A realy nice day out, nice but not stellar conditions. When i got back down to the Col du Midi things had softend up a lot. I didn't need skins to make headway until the steepest part of the climb back to the lift. By which time it was best to walk anyway.