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The Brèche Nonne Evêque is the obvious thin couloir in the center of the picture. First skied by Jean-Marc Boivin on the 21 April 1984. The Brèche is at 3306m and the start of the climb from the glacier is at around 2000m.
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The first 800m of ascent is up slopes like these. By the time we had got back to these slopes to ski down it was nearly dark and skiing them in the pale evening light was a fantastic experience, brightened by the sparks from our edges as we occasionally hit rocks hiding in the snow.
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The very thin bit at the base required some ice tool action to get up it.
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Dave scrambling up
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And then capturing excellent shots like this
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The climb just went on and on and on. The couloir itself is 500m of 50 to 55 degrees.
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Ploughing through snow that was thigh deep in places
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Eventually reaching the brèche at around 4 in the afternoon, after having caught the 8:15 cable car from Cham.
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If you look past Dave you can see that the west face of the Droits is looking in good condition to be skied
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Dave heads off down
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From here it looks like you are looking straight down at the Vallee Blanch
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I am going to let the pics do the talking now...
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