Trip Video - North Face of Bellecote

The season isn't over yet, despite Easter having come & gone.... On Saturday I sneaked in a quick run on the North face of Bellecote in La Plagne via the Ruggéri couloir (skiers right of the face, in between the Gros Glacier & "Pianiste") before heading off to the Plan des Gouilles refuge for a long-standing appointment with the Grand Bec.
A fair mix of snow conditions (mostly tricky) in the couloir, but a good day out, and great spring snow (and hardly a soul) on the pistes to & from...!



Mixed weather for this week, so plenty more fun still to come...

Awesome footage, that was some steep terrain, and appeared to be fluffy powder which turned into "ice" ... just too good...

The fluffy powder didn't last as long as we had hoped.....
Bit of everything.. crust, wind-blown, firm, and finally some good spring snow on the bottom face...
All good today though as there was 15-20cm of fresh up high in places!!

offpisteskiing wrote:The fluffy powder didn't last as long as we had hoped.....
Bit of everything.. crust, wind-blown, firm, and finally some good spring snow on the bottom face...
All good today though as there was 15-20cm of fresh up high in places!!

Its weird this time of year. On Easter Sunday I was making fresh tracks through knee deep snow most of the day, waist deep in places off piste, and the next day it was only shin deep and the top was like meringue after the wind had blown on it all night.
There was still some good soft stuff to be found in certain parts where the wind hadnt got to it though.

Quick question, but what is the feeling about this guy not wearing a helmet doing this run?

Awesome video! I saw a lot of people hiking up from the Glacier chair on Friday - I think there were a couple of ESF groups up there. Unfortunately by Saturday I was down in Bourg waiting for the train, I wish I could've been skiing that instead.

Tony_H wrote:Quick question, but what is the feeling about this guy not wearing a helmet doing this run?

Please, please no.

!! aaaah, helmets ... :-)

The nearest anyone got to getting hit on the head was me being clonked by a couple bits of snow/ice while filming... I put my hood up and everything was fine...
As for Greg, well, being a) a fully qualified ski instructor and b) an extremely experienced alpinist and ice-climber extraordinaire; then I think his judgement is perfectly adequate... !!

offpisteskiing wrote:!! aaaah, helmets ... :-)

The nearest anyone got to getting hit on the head was me being clonked by a couple bits of snow/ice while filming... I put my hood up and everything was fine...
As for Greg, well, being a) a fully qualified ski instructor and b) an extremely experienced alpinist and ice-climber extraordinaire; then I think his judgement is perfectly adequate... !!

Good, fine by me. However there are many on here who will tell you Greg should be thrown into ski prison for not wearing a lid. How very dare he.