Super Couloir
Super Couloir….good route name. After the little recce on skis the day before, Dave Hollinger, Mark Walker and I settled in to the Abri Simond hut for a night of cordon bleu jetboil meals and itchy blankets. An early coffee, then some headtorch skiing saw first light near the ‘shrund. A little bungling around trying to find the Gervasutti start (it’s fallen down or something…), delayed our kick off on the Direct start. Intimidating, but good gear lead to a horrific (awesome lead by Mr Walker)
The Dudes, Direct Start, Super Couloir.
overhung snow plug barring access to the main couloir, then rapid progress in the amazing cleft to the end of the steep climbing. Neither of us being purists, and “when in Rome”, we dived back down via rapid rapping to arrive at our skis a little after dusk. The ski down the Valle Blanche to town was aided by piste like conditions, a clear evening and the miracle of bright headlamps. Woop, woop!
