LOCALadk Magazine

Epic Journey | LOCALadk Lionel Tassan's classic Chamonix ski guidebook Mont Blanc Toponeige ( aka: The Book of Death) gives the Couloir Barbey a ski rating of 5.2. The scale tops out at 5.5. The first fifty meters require a mandatory "slip" because arching turns down this steep slope would certainly cut the snow and release an avalanche that would have grave consequences. It's so steep, a fall here would develop into an uncontrolled slide into the rocks below and carry similar consequences. Josh, the lone snowboarder in the group, ice axe in hand, reluctantly commits to the entrance and slowly edges his way down. Several tense moments pass, and Josh finally makes it to a safer spot. Bill follows. With his usual carefree attitude replaced by a tone of worry, he asks, "Can't I just turn?" Yannick yells, "No, keep slipping!" A few more tense moments go by and Bill makes it to the same safe zone where Josh is standing. Now it is my turn. I commit one ski to the fall line, then the other. Slowly inching my way down the slope, which has become icier and icier with each passing skier, I look down beyond my skis to see the consequences of a fall and it's scary, real scary. Suddenly, I hear a voice yell, "S**t," which is followed immediately by the sound of steel ski edges scraping against alpine ice. Dave, who was following behind me, lost an edge and was sliding at the fringes of control toward the rocks below. His slide seemed to last forever. I think we all had visions of the worst, but luckily, he somehow regained control and continued descending safely. After all five of us reached a safer area, we began individually making turns down the couloir. The only way to ski such steep terrain is to make careful deliberate turns until a safe area is reached. A fall at these angles on this kind of terrain can turn into a fatal slide very quickly. After what felt like hundreds of turns down Couloir Barbey the five of us safely arrived on the Glacier de Salenia, swapped stories about the descent, refueled our bodies with baguettes, and discussed our route back to "le tour." One more climb that seemed to last forever led us onto the col du Ferrar. The descent down to "le tour" was a stark contrast from the Couloir Barbey. We made several thousand vertical feet of low angle soul turns into the valley below as we skied together with giant smiles on our faces. There were other memorable moments on this trip. One was being tied, with a knot into a rope, with no harness, to our guide in case he fell off a cornice while scouting a safe route off a summit in Italy. Another was when Josh and I had to navigate a route back from the town of Vallorcene. This involved a cross country ski piste, a gondola, three chairlifts, and a bus back to town after we narrowly missed our ride. Meeting the famous Glen Plake and finding out he loves ski Dave McCahill ready for takeoff on the Glacier De La Floria. Matt Young LOCALadk Magazine Fall into Winter 2013 25

• Cover