ADH Tunnel, how difficult is it?

andyhull wrote:The entry onto the Mt Fort black was fairly icky when I skied it three weeks ago, can only imagine what it was like last year after weeks without snow.
The tunnel is a little steeper than Tortin I think.

It most certainly is, although I thought Tortin was steep first time I did it, my first ever "off piste" experience a few years back now.

Andy, amazing looking at your photo on 15th Jan what difference 2 weeks makes. The snow on yours looks amazing, whereas whilst we had decent snow, it was nothing like the freshies in your photo.

I rest my case re conditions making a run seem harder/easier.

Tone, Andy's picture was taken in January 2010, according to the tag on the shot.

Anyway, this thread has got me thinking about the hardest run I've ever done - another thread, I think!

(And how I hate the expression 'freshies'; right up there with 'bluebird day' in the lexicon of yuk-ski speak!!!) :mrgreen:

The entry to Tortin in its left corner is very steep if you want to avoid the traverse, even in a good year bumps are big at this place too. Quite narrow too, first 4 turns are stressful, if you fall in this place you can roll all the way to the bottom, then it's possible to get out of that part and traverse little bit to where it's nicer. It's not the steepness but the size of the bumps which can be the problem, after the top 50-100 meters the rest is 'gentle' (relatively speeking). But there is always a way to navigate them. They did something with Mont-Fort this season - they used to groom the path in previous seasons, but they let it bump up now. quite a horrible ride and very discouraging before the actual run even starts.

LOTA wrote:Tone, Andy's picture was taken in January 2010, according to the tag on the shot.

That explains quite a lot then. There was me thinking "where did all that snow go?"

verbier_ski_bum wrote:The entry to Tortin in its left corner is very steep if you want to avoid the traverse, even in a good year bumps are big at this place too. Quite narrow too, first 4 turns are stressful, if you fall in this place you can roll all the way to the bottom, then it's possible to get out of that part and traverse little bit to where it's nicer. It's not the steepness but the size of the bumps which can be the problem, after the top 50-100 meters the rest is 'gentle' (relatively speeking). But there is always a way to navigate them. They did something with Mont-Fort this season - they used to groom the path in previous seasons, but they let it bump up now. quite a horrible ride and very discouraging before the actual run even starts.

Your post got me thinking about the differences between Tortin and The Tunnel, and I went back to look at my photos from 2008 when I skied Verbs, and I had forgotten how steep that bit was, and just how enormous that mogul field below actually is.
Heres a couple of photos I took of it;

Yes, it can be evil. I saw a group of blind skiers at the bottom of Tortin - the only way to get there is by skis - and it made me think which way I'd prefer to get in if I was blind? Traverse or this. They must be really awesome skiers.

One of the skiers we skied with had a bad fall on Tortin last season, she fell a long way and it took quite a few months to get fit again. Skiing with us was the first time she'd skied it since.
I prefer steeps to traverses (yes I'm odd like that) so I took the left hand route each time I skied it.