IsaacDVT: Chardonnet W Couloir direct

After a day with rain in the valley but snow high up it meant that couloirs where slightly filled up again and steeper faces got some sticky snow on them.
I´m not direct a steep skier of any kind. I have done a few planned exposed ski runs and about as many unplanned…

Jespers Petersson, Mikko Heimonen and Simon Nilsson were going for the W couloir on the Chardonnet I in the Argentiere basin and wondered if I was keen on joining. After some googling I decided that this was going to be a nice adventure and doable for me.

Jesper and simon getting ready

We took the first grand Montets bin up to the highest point at 3275 meter. From here we put on our skis and skied down to the Argentier glacier, and what a start! Nice powder turns all the way down. Once down on the glacier the skins and ski crampons went on and the walk began. We could skin quite high up until we reached the couloir; Time to put the skis on the backpack.

I enjoyed climbing up the couloir this gave an idea what to expect on the way down and we could already check out anchor for the abseils. Just after 2 o´clock we reached the summit.

After a short break it was time for the descent. The first turns were on incredible good snow;this was going to be great! Soon we arrived at the first abseil this is where

the couloir traverses a bit but it´s pretty exposed. I choose to abseil, the others had enough by just holding the rope. From here we got some incredible turns again on a wider section but soon it narrowed again. We managed to ski almost the whole way down but in the end we were took out the rope again to manage the last 60 meters until reaching the glacier, here we had rocks and ice sticking out. After jumping the bergschrund on our skis we made our way back to the Grand Montet mid station and actually managed to get the last bin down together with the staff and garbage. A great ski and great day out with new friends!