Chamonix

CHAMONIX: Mecca, place of longing and birthplace: of alpinism, steep face skiing and many other types of mountain sports. Following on from the article about a new first ascent, today we are looking at films about the ski culture from Chamonix, which is sometimes fraught with high consequences, always enchanted with great panoramic aesthetics and sometimes refined with fun and joy.

Vivian Bruchez is one of the most successful steep face skiers of his generation. As a creative "line finder", he is giving the popular Mont Blanc massif back some of its wild originality with his spectacular first ascents. At the beginning of March, Bruchez and Tom Lafaille successfully completed a new route on the Aiguille du Goûter.

It's a strange winter. The fear of Covid 19 seems to have the whole of Europe in its grip. France is no exception. Apart from the training slopes for young skiers, all lifts are at a standstill. The otherwise lively and bustling centre of Chamonix, where alpinists, ski bums and high society from all over the world gather, seems strangely quiet and completely atypical for this time of the year.

This skiing adventure on the outskirts of Chamonix has everything to make a skier's heart beat faster. A gondola ride up the Aiguilles Rouges, two entertaining ascents and a long, challenging steep chute that leads into a picturesque valley. The remoteness and the picturesque return journey on the little train from Le Buet make this ski safari an exciting day trip.

You can't reinvent the ski, unless your name is Sean McConkey. All striving for powder and weightlessness has its origins in steep face skiing. So in these hopefully reflective days for all of us, let's go back to those roots. After all, whatever we do in the mountains: style means everything.

If you can't think of anything, then you watch VLOGs. A bit of something has come together. At the end of the day, once again  PowderGuide contest reporter Tobias Huber saves us with his season edit.

Seems like the first skiers are already secretly hiding in their favorite couloirs during these days with less snow. At least that's what the successful YT search for this special terrain suggests! Presented here: steep descents from the Pyrenees, the Rockies, Scandinavia and, of course, the Alps! We learn how to ski couloirs without using poles or hand straps!

There is hardly a place on this planet where the contrasts between urbanity and extreme nature are as close together as in the Chamonix valley. This has advantages, but also disadvantages - and you are definitely never alone in the El Dorado of alpine superlatives.

The European Outdoor Film Tour is back on the road with a new program from 10 October 2018. As always, the tour scores with an exciting and varied program that lets you escape from everyday life for around 120 minutes.

Pete Houghton lives in Chamonix and has years of experience on the classic and less classic steep descents in the area. He recently climbed a couloir on the Becs Rouges. After good snow in the upper section and two abseils, he traversed into his intended exit couloir and found out: The exit from the gully had slipped since the inspection and no longer existed. Rockfall and wet snow threatened from above.

First things first: I find it difficult to write this review. That's not because I don't have an opinion on the movie. It's mainly because I did watch the movie, but nothing really stuck with me. Powder here, powder there, bad conditions in South America, seals, Chamonix, Johnny Collinson.

A short conversation at the start of the tour with German skiers Bene and Felix.