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Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Ski tour to the Tête du Ruitor, Italy
A classic ski tour starting in the French Tarentaise (photo 1 taken on 10/4) climbed by brother Steve and I. If you have Google Earth installed on your computer open the file in this zip file to see the route. Start with a walk up of 664m altitude from La Masure via Le Crot to the Refuge de Ruitor where we spent a pretty comfortable night with 7 other ski tourers: they were clearly jealous of the 1/2 litre of wine and good food we carried up! After a fairly good night in the dormitory we leave at 6.45am to climb the Glacier de l'Invernet (photo 2) using skins on our skis, and fully tooled up for crossing glaciers. Steve is in great shape and reaches the col by 11am, and me by 11.45am; a climb of 1,265 metres vertical. After food and water we carry on over the border into Italy to climb the extra 190m vertical to reach the Tête du Ruitor (photo 3) at 3486m altitude. The Ruitor is an immense north facing Italian glacier, popular with heli-skiers from La Rosiere/La Thuile. We ski back in to France via the Glacier du Grand (photo 4) - a long glacial valley filled with moraines and bluffs - back to the refuge, and on down to a tasty beer at Le Crot. Brilliant day alive. (Here is the route overlayed to the map, GPS data captured by a Nokia E90 mobile phone prototype)
posted by Guy Nicholson, 9:38 pm 0 comments 
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Ski tour in the Ecrins national park, France
Ski tour in the heart of the Ecrins national park in the southern French alps with guide Olivier Laborie, Sam Pritchard and myself. In 2005 due to bad weather and tough climbing conditions we failed to get to the Glacier Blanc, so this was well earnt. On 6th April 2007 We start in Monetier-Le-Bains to climb 1,100m across two glaciers and two cols to reach the Col du Monetier and see the huge Glacier Blanc (Photo 1). We ski down the Glacier Jean Gauthier in the afternoon sun and spring snow with alpine scenery that matches any alpine views in the world (Photos 2-5) to reach the Refuge de Glacier Blanc at the foot of the Barre des Ecrins (Photo 6).
This area is our guide's "home turf". The refuge offers a great dinner, but a sleepless night in a room of 24 people. At 6am on 7th April we leave the hut and skin up the Glacier Blanc for 860m vertical (Photo 7), then climb a final 80metres beside a cornice (Photos 8-11) to reach the Col Emile Pic (3483m). Ski a long ridge then a huge colouir (Photos 12-13) then traverse Lac du Glacier d'Arsine (Photo 14) to Le Casset to finish the tour with a cold beer, then drive back via la Grave.
posted by Guy Nicholson, 9:52 pm 0 comments
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