10.12.2023

As always, we spent a magical night in the hospice. Time spent with a group of friends, a unique atmosphere and the stillness that comes with staying in the hospice always make for an enjoyable weekend. I look forward already to next year’s weekend.

The night was extremely windy on the Col du Grand Saint Bernard. According to the Meteo Suisse weather station, there had been gusts of up to 150km/h. This was promptly verified when I popped my head out the door before breakfast. This was forecast, and a plan to adapt to this situation had been formed the night before. The decision to descend down to Bourg Saint Pierre was made, and we would hope that the worst of the wind would not have affected the lower altitudes. I said my goodbyes to Brother Rafael until next year, and we made the easy descent back to the car. 500m- of descent was not bad to warm up the quads.

Starting at the school at Bourg Saint Pierre, it was a rare short descent down to the river. The snow was abundant, but wet. We knew it had rained during the night but hoped it wouldn’t be too bad for the snow pack.

The climb up through the forest was pleasant, and the snow-covered trees had an air of stillness. We set a good pace, which was fast but manageable, and we quickly met the treeline. A short traverse was required to navigate an old landslide before meeting the cross that could be seen from below and rejoining the plateau.

The snow felt awful, a thick crust had formed and the underlying layer was wet. We hoped it would improve as we went up. The original plan was just to stop at the cross at Champ Long (2132m), thinking that the snow would be wind beaten higher up. We decided to continue on a bit and see how the snow developed.

Fortunately, as we continued up it seemed the snow had been sheltered from the wind and was on the limit of snow/rain. It improved as we approached the summit and we even encountered limited patches of semi-fresh powder. The descent would at least have some metres of fun.

A pause was taken at the summit to enjoy a view of the Massif du Mont Blanc to the west and le Grand Combin and Mont Velan to the east. Cups of tea and a sandwich later and skins were off ready to descend.

Descending afforded us about 50m of good snow and 950m of not-so-good snow, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. Arriving back to the end river at the bottom of the valley, my legs were shot. 1000m+ of descent in heavy snow on untrained legs was tough so early in the season and only went to reinforce why I need to go the gym before the new year.

Stats:

Depart 10h45, Summit:13h45, parking 15h

13.2km 1081m+