Dream Lines on the Sky Piercer: Skiing in New Zealand.

** If your not so much of a reader then there is an image gallery of the whole trip at the bottom of the post. Please email if you want more details or to repost this article: davesearleguiding@gmail.com **


What a trip.

I’ve never really had (or made?) the chance to ski outside of the Alps. Having the privilege to have lived in Chamonix for the past 11 years has meant that 99% of my skiing has been around the area, apart from a few days in Scotland. Skiing close to home has its pros and cons. Pro: It’s quicker and easier to get to the ski hill so I can try to have a smaller carbon footprint. Con: I often end up skiing the same runs, meaning some of the classics have lost their magic and appeal. Pro: It’s very easy to get a lot of exposure in order to improve your skills in ski mountaineering/steep skiing/freeride skiing/backcountry skiing or whatever you want to call it. Quite simply, the terrain and access we have around Chamonix is some of the best in the world. Con: Because it’s one of the best, it’s busy and almost everything has already been skied at some point, which means there is little to no true adventure left to be had.

When Ross Hewitt casually mentioned to me in the bar one evening that he was booking a trip to ski in New Zealand in the late Autumn (or spring if you live down there) my interest was piqued. I’d wanted to take a trip back there for a while ever since I went for a family trip when I was 17 where we did the typical tourist itinerary: driving around in a campervan, sight-seeing, and bungee jumping. I remember being enchanted by the rugged landscapes and open spaces, vowing I’d come back at some point. I had no idea it would be skiing that brought me back. At that age though I had only done about three days of skiing in my life so it wasn’t yet on my radar. 

Fast forward 14 years to late September 2019 and I’m sat at my computer in rainy Chamonix after what was one of the most emotionally and physically exhausting summer seasons I’ve ever had. I’m about to pull the trigger on a £1200 flight that I can barely afford. Completing the IFMGA guides course this summer took its toll on me not only physically and psychologically but also on my bank balance.  ‘What the hell’ I thought. Click, game on!

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Climbing the North Ridge of mont dolent

Mont Dolent Climbing and Ski Traverse with Colin Haley

I’ve wanted to climb Mont Dolent for many years. Although not a massive peak compared with other alpine giants, Mont Dolent is quite unique.  Its the point where three of the great alpine countries meet, France to the NW, Switzerland to the East and Italy to the south. With the classic Ice Goulotte of the Charlet-Couturier route on the Argentiere basin face and moderate ski terrain to the south it is an unsung gem of ski mountaineering and offers a near perfect day out if you can just get the timing right….
When Colin Haley asked me if I wanted to do it with him at the weekend I was pretty damn stoked and honored that he wanted to bring a Brit punter like me along.  Of course I said yes and we made the necessary preparations in terms of equipment and logistics.  I packed a tunnel pass and mentally prepared myself to have to pay a friend to pick us up from Courmayeur at the end of the day (We choose this descent rather than down to La Fouly because we figured it would be cheaper, even though it was longer).  When Colin broke the news to me that he’d be taking his Skimo Racing skis I felt slightly despaired. My thinnest, lightest skis are 95mm under the foot and weight almost twice as much, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me.
In the morning we jostled our way onto the first bin pushing and shoving the others around us in the usual hectic Chamonix style.  We clipped in and set off across the “high traverse” under the north faces.  Much to my bemusement Colin set a fierce pace on his tiny skis… somewhere along the line I forgot he was a pretty handy skier aswell as being a top level alpinist.
With skins on I set my pace close to my lactate threshold pushing hard but not getting overly tired.  Colin would catch up and take some photos whilst I carried on and the catch up again soon after. We passed a couple waking from a night in a tent and up ahead at the end of the glacier we saw another pair near the bergshrund of our route.  We were soon there and strapping our skis onto our packs about an hour and twenty minutes after leaving the lift.  The other team had just got over onto the bergshrund  when we set off and we simul-soloed past them on the first pitch being careful and delicate not to knock ice down on them. However with the near perfect Névé this wasn’t much of an issue.  After the first few bulges I noticed it got a little thinner and blacker and also a couple of small stones were coming off from above. We decided (or rather I asked) to put the rope on, at least for a bit. After about 90m and with the difficulties done we put it away and carried on up and out left along a snowy ramp to the ridge. Up the ridge a little way and out left across a large snow bay (in Switzerland) we crossed another bergshrund onto the upper slopes. I was feeling the burn quite a bit on the last few hundred meters primarily because I hadn’t managed my hydration and food that well until now (learning by mistakes is good). We topped out a little after 1.50 and began our descent down into Italy finding some good and bad snow that lead us all the way down to the Val Ferret.  What ensued was my least favorite and what Colin later told me was his favourte part of the day… About 12km of polling and skating down the valley on forest trails and cross country tracks. I was suffering hard on my “heavy” skis trying to keep up with Colin who looked like he was out for a quick sunday Ski du Fond after lunch.
Rather perfectly we arrived the end of the snow at exactly the same time a bus did. We jumped on it and pondered if the Helbronner lift would be open so we could save the cost of going through the tunnel by skiing back to Chamonix down the Vallee Noire… With jelly legs we quick marched through the streets of Entreves to the lift which was still running at 3.40.  I was feeling pretty thirsty by this point and was looking forward to a bottle of coke or something at the top station before the long ski back to Cham.. I joked with Colin that we could theoretically make the last train if we rallied.
“We should totally try….Come on man lets do it!”
“Errrrggghh… Ok”  I agreed. Without a moment to spare we rattled off down through the flat light skiing, without stopping, from the Helbronner to the bottom of the stairs at Montenvers.  The loud speaker informed us we had five minutes to march up the 300 or so stairs to make the last lift up to the train station… Pushing deeply into oxygen deficit I lolloped my way up the stairs gasping for breaths some way behind Colin. I nearly collapsed in the bubble but was thankful to have the train to take me back to town. We agreed it was one of the best days of this winter for both of us, apart from some scramble he did with some guy called Alex down in a place where its really windy all the time. All that was left was for me to rescue my car from Argentiere but luckily as soon as I put my thumb out and the first car stopped for me…..perfection.