ITALY UPDATE: Exploring Courmayeur's Couloirs
Rebecca Huntington |
The dome of Europe-"Monte Bianco" the Italian side-sits shrouded in clouds, so we have decided to forgo its Toula Glacier on this April day. Instead, we're sitting in the Bar le Soleil next to the top of the Courmayeur tram, drinking cappucinos and waiting for local skiers, Paolo Braga and Anna Costa. These off-piste diehards harvest their stashes nearly every morning before opening the slope-side mountain chalet where they keep the skiers as "phat" - if not more so - as the powder.
We've only been in Courmayeur a couple of days jetting to the Alps as soon as my husband, Reed, a ski patroller at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, could put away the explosives and bamboo following the resort's April 6 closure. Here in Courmayeur, a friend, Stefano Bittelli, has introduced us to Paolo and Anna, who have generously agreed to show us the Vesses Couloirs-an area Stefano likes to call "my garden" for its bountiful off-piste powder and varied terrain features. At this point, all we know about Paolo is that he bombs the slopes in "freeride" races (imagine an out-of-bounds, GS race down 3,000 feet with few gates) and has earned a reputation among friends for venturing into little-traveled, potentially sketchy terrain. We saw lone tracks drop into a rocky couloir while skiing the resort a few days earlier, and Stefano immediately suspected Paolo (the "constant gardener") as the author of the tracks. (He confirmed this at lunch when we stopped by the Chiecco, the restaurant run by Paolo and Anna.)
Once Anna and Paolo show up, we head straight for the Youla cable car, which was forbidden to us on our first day when it remained closed for avalanche control. We leave behind a swarm of British teens lined up for snowboarding lessons. Although the teens make the base seem busy, it's a week day so the crowds drop off like flies as our elevation rises. From Cresta Youla, we walk right onto a cable car to Cresta d'Arp (roughly 7,100 feet), where low clouds hide our destination. After traversing across a col and into a wide bowl, we ski velvety boot-top powder, blindly following Anna and Paolo, before descending into a series of couloirs that roll like cascades off the mountain's flanks. The rocky buttresses rise up in a maze-like fashion, allowing skiers to pick a line a la carte-traversing here, dropping in there.
Although the rocky walls give definition to the slopes, the drop in elevation also turns the snow to an icy hardpack. Paolo skied this same couloir in powder just a week before. Even on this day, he expertly navigates frozen avalanche debris making the slope appear softer than it is. I dodge the frozen chicken heads-a name we've passed along to the Italians to their amusement-with less grace. After dropping more than 3,000 feet, my thighs exploding from carving hard pack, we arrive at a creek. The traverse across the creek requires speed and confidence if you don't want to wind up nipple-deep in glacial run-off. The long traverse out reminds us of Jackson Hole's Granite Canyon (minus the hip "dislocation" from side-hilling.)
Without hesitation, we take the four lifts back to d'Arp for two more laps. Paolo and Anna show us another aesthetic line-the Cardinal Couloir. On the third lap, the clouds finally relent, showing off the machette-like ridges all around. Bathed in sun and blue sky, we now have this alpine paradise all to ourselves. Perseverance pays off as we reap a reward of creamy powder turns down a slope we can finally see. The lower part of the run almost turns to corn after having been kissed by the sun. Finishing off the day Italian style, we make our way back to the Chiecco restaurant to stuff ourselves on homemade ravioli and gnocchi, chocolate soufflé and grappa prepared by Anna and Paolo, who treat both food and skiing with reverence.
Rebecca Huntington |
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