Kathy and I spent a few days on the Oregon coast visiting with her mother Jan, and Jan’s husband Bob. We were lucky enough to enjoy some good weather, somewhat unusual for this time of year. Here are just a few photos from our walks on the beach.
Sunset from the beach at Arch Cape.
Our last Haute Route of this ski season was the Bourg-St-Pierre/ Plateau du Couloir variation, with Mont Vélan thrown in for good measure. For this trip we were joined by brothers Larry and Mike Sokolsky, their buddy Roy Tsugawa, as well as Amy Caddell of Vermont, and Shaun Guyton of New Zealand.
To see more photos from this trip have a look at our web site, specifically, this page!
Amy dares to violate that age-old rule: "Never lick a glacier!"
Our second Chamonix to Zermatt Haute Route this year brought together a great group from far-flung places. The week included a mix of good and bad weather, which led to some really fine skiing conditions.
The crew included, Byron Grant, Miguel Caracoche, Jeff and Shelley Hanks, Brad Ritzel, Kimber Keagle, Gerrit Saylor, with Kathy and Mark.
For more photos (we only have 6 or 7 here) see our entry in our recent trips page.
Miguel, Shelly, Jeff and Byron seem quite interested in dinner.
Our first Chamonix to Zermatt Haute Route was fantastic. Great folks! Great weather, and in spite of a reputedly terrible winter for snow, we had fine skiing conditions.
Joy and Patrick Kettler, along with Thomas Kral joined Kathy and Mark on this tour. Here are a few pics.
For the entire story and a bigger collection of photos (some 30 of them) see our entry in our Recent Trips Gallery on our web site.
Patrick, Kathy, Joy, Thomas and the Matterhorn, at the Col de Valpelline.
David Ries added a few days to his Val d’Isere ski vacation and joined Mark for some off and on piste skiing in Chamonix.
Our plan was to meet in Val d’Isere, jump in the car and drive to La Rosiere, some 40 minutes distance. From there, David and Mark would ski into Italy, via the liaison between the Rosiere and La Thuile ski areas. Meanwhile, Kathy would drive the car back to Chamonix, through the Mont Blanc tunnel and meet our heroes in La Thuile. Another quick drive to La Palud, a ride up the cable car to Point Helbronner, and, in theory, a Vallee Blanche descent into Chamonix.
All went well until the weather closed in over the high mountains. The Vallee Blanche was all together too blanche, and we scrapped that portion of the day’s plan.
Our second day also proved to be somewhat problematic, weather wise. We spent it largely in the fog at the Grands Montets. Visibility was in and out, but we did manage a couple of runs off the top lift, enjoying the new snow when we could see it. Finding our lunch locale at the Chalet Refuge de Lognan was actually quite difficult in the pea soup fog.
Our last day, however was spectacular. And it is from this day alone that I have any photos!
David on the summit of the Aiguille du Midi in perfect weather.
Here are a few pics from a very quick, three-day traverse of the West Berner Oberland tour. We had a bit of time away from work and decided to do our best to exhaust ourselves.
This tour starts at the Glacier 3000 ski complex in Les Diablerets and ends in Kandersteg.
For a few more photos from this tour, visit our Recent Trips Gallery on our website.
In order to fit what is normally a 5-day outing into our available 2 and a half days, we had to put in some long days. In this photo we are halfway through day 1, after climbing over the Arpelistock, we are heading towards the Wildhorn.
| Jerry Minzel and his friend Rick Billingham of the Seattle area joined us in 2007 on a Chamonix to Zermatt Haute Route. This year they came over again, this time with Jerry’s son Jeff, and all of their wives (Vicki, Judy and Lori, respectively) for a week of on and off-piste skiing. They hired Kathy (and Mark of course joined in as “official” photographer) for a descent of the Vallee Blanche.
We have only 5 photos in this post. For more photos of this threesome go here.  "Hiking" down the arete of the Aiguille du Midi.
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Brothers Dan and Rich, along with friend Tom, hopped across the pond for a week of ski touring and off-piste from their Chamonix base. In addition to the “classics”, such as the Vallée Blanche and the out-of-bounds at the Grands Montets, we also found great powder snow on the Crochues-Berard Traverse, the “backside” Vallon de Van at Les Marecottes, and a great tour up Mont Valaisan out of the La Thuile ski area in Italy. And for something completely different, we threw in a day of waterfall ice climbing at La Crémerie.
In this post we’ve included a half dozen photos. Too see more from of these guys have a look at this page in our Recent Trips Gallery.
Left to right, we have Tom, Dan and Rich. About to descend from the Col Crochues on the Crochues-Bérard Traverse
We lucked out in the Queyras this year with long powder snow descents every day!
See more photos of this trip in our Recent Trips Gallery.
Dropping into the gully below the Brèche de la Ruine on the Tour of the Pain de Sucre in the Queyras.
Maura and Mike, in celebration of Mike’s “significant” birthday, took a skiing vacation in the Alps. They joined Kathy and Mark for 4 days, mostly in Chamonix, but also venturing as far as Zermatt and Cervinia.
With no new snow for some weeks, we had decidedly firm conditions, but at least the skies were blue.
See more photos from Maura and Mike’s trip in the Recent Trips Gallery section of our website.
Maura and Mike with Mont Blanc as a backdrop.
