Haute Route Report
7 Day Ski Tour from Chamonix to Zermatt

Approximately 1400m downhill (including the downhill from Grand-Montets), for about 900m uphill

Top of Grand Montets to Glacier d'Argentière (approx 730m downhill)

Off to an early start, we take the lift from Argentère to the summit of les Grands Montets. A good tip is to have the tickets organised the day before, as the lines can be long and the wait can lose valuable time. From there we skied down to the glacier d'Argentière, our guide later explained that he uses this descent to evaluate the skiing level of all the people in the group, from the glacier itself it is still possible to organise to have someone stop the tour if the level is not good enough. From what i know some guides alöso do a mandatory ski down the Vallée Blanche the day before for this kind of evaluation.

Glacier d'Argentière to Col du Chardonnet (approx. 800m uphill)

A little pause on the glacier, to receive some explanations on glacier travel, behavior and some good tips for conversions (steep uphill turns). From the glacier itself, the view is impressive, on one side, the glaciers where we will be going up, towards col du Chardonnet, on the other side, the steep ice climbing slopes of Les Courtes, les Droites and a few narrow gullies, all dominated by the Aiguille Verte, the whole range curving and culminating with the source of the glacier meeting the base of Mont Dolent, the triple border (France, Italy, Switzerland) summit.

Once the majestic scnenery (this is only the beginning) all taken in, we start the ascent towards col du Chardonnet. The beginning is relatively steep, and being in the shadow, snow having therefore frozen over from the previous day's warmth, makes the usage of knives (ski crampons) rather useful. Once we are out of the shadows and on a gentler slope, we allow ourselves a little lunch break, taking the time to enjoy the scenery and rest a bit. The second half of the ascent to Col du Chardonnet, is relatively gentle and with the renewed energy gained from the lunch break we rapidly reach the col itself.

With the amount of people skinning up the track, and our latish start, we arrive at the col with a line of people waiting to be roped down the first steep part. Our guide decides that we will head slightly left of the col and install our rope there to not have to wait so long. The slope turns out to be a bit longer than expected, and, after lowering everybody down, our guide rappels off, but it takes 2 rappels to reach the skiable part. By the time we are all ready to ski again, there is no one at the col anymore, we are not sure that our little shortcut was indeed one, tough it was for sure more interesting as the normal way, since we did not wait, but were kept busy climbing, preparing and going down, instead of just mainly waiting in line...

Col du Chardonnet skiing down on Galcier de Saleina (approx. 750m downhill) then up to Cabane de Saleina (about 100m uphill)

We have one long descent left down the glacier de Saleina, by this time, the snow has been on the sun for quite a while and is quite heavy, we have to concentrate hard to keep our balance, as it is rather deep and the slope is not so steep. We reach the base of the final uphill for the day, a 30 minute skin up from the glacier to Cabane de Saleina, where a warm meal and a few cold beers await.

in order to have a good night sleep, an oxygen bottle is necessary, not to avoid the effects of altitude, to avoid the intensive smells lingering in the dorms... keep a tight eye on that bottle, others will try to steal it ;o) another usefull companion, ear plugs....

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