12/20/2023 0 Comments Sunshine vienna fingersSkinning in the fresh snow was laborious but steady. The first day of stage 11 (day 75 of my whole journey) would take us over four cols, covering 17km to reach a winter room at Refuge de Vens, an unmanned mountain hut with basic sleeping facilities where the terrain is uninhabited and remote. The weather charts suggested we couldn’t be better positioned. Further north, Chamonix was being battered by much worse weather comprising high winds, heavy snowfall and an avalanche hazard rising to Cat 4. Fresh, untracked slopes extended southwards, sparkling in the sun with invitation and promise. The morning dawned bright and cold as snowploughs cleared the road through the col. Everyone was excited and eager for the coming adventure… Over dinner in the gîte we discussed the route, options if we needed to make changes, the current conditions and avalanche risk close to the steep crests. To sum it up, it’s a tour that rarely disappoints. The key section traverses the mighty summit of Mont Ténibre at 3031m. Although non-glacial, it covers a variety of interesting terrain with some challenging steeper sections in ascent and descent. I knew it to be one of the most rewarding ski tours of the Alps. I was already familiar with the route, having crossed the Mercantour before with a friend in 2009. We would need to focus on each day as it came. Yet for the five new skiers joining me for this final stage (a mix of old friends and new faces – all of them solid skiers and most skilled using crampons and ice axes), it was the start of their adventure. Left, Dave and Ruth approaching the Pas de Corborant above the Rabuons refuge An adventure so long yearned for, with so much invested in it, and so many powerful and emotional memories formed already… a suppressed awareness was growing inside me that this unique project was almost over. The majority of the journey was already behind us. I had mixed emotions meeting my team for the final stage at the Col de Larche. The most logical line closely follows the frontier between Italy and France due south to the Mediterranean sea. The final stage of our traverse passed through a quiet yet unforgettable mountain range in the Southern French Alps called the Mercantour. The eight days that took us from the Col de Larche in France, which forms the border between the Cottian Alps and the Maritime Alps, to Menton near Nice. Memories interwoven into such a vast fabric of experiences, and so completely, that it’s difficult to identify a single thread on its own.īut, to offer you a taste of what’s out there I’d like to tell you about the final leg – stage 11 – of our journey. The three months of Exercise Alpine Arc 2015 now form such a rich and varied collection of memories that it’s hard to know where to begin sharing with you what happened. A journey accumulating well over 1000kms, almost 80,000ms of ascent and descent and taking 82 days to complete. Each stage creating an opportunity for six more skiers to share this great adventure. That, in essence, formed the kernel that grew to be Exercise Alpine Arc 2015 – a series of 11 consecutive, linked ski journeys through the Alps, from Puchberg am Schneeburg in Austria to Menton on the Mediterranean coast of France. So when I committed to the idea of traversing the Alps on skis, I also knew that I wanted to generate opportunities for other Service skiers to join me. I now balance my guiding work with leading adventurous training for the British Services. I left in 2002 to train for my IFMGA qualification, but continued serving as a Reservist. From that moment I knew that my path to traverse the Alps on skis had already begun.īefore working as a mountain and ski guide in Chamonix I was in the British Army. Qualifying as a mountain guide helped me realise that we must commit to our dreams if we are ever to realise them. I began to read accounts from others researched ways to link key sections and lost myself in endless maps and eventually started plotting down on paper. T he idea of skiing across the Alps during one winter had been brewing for years. First Published by Falline Magazine as “Conquering the Alpine Arc, by Tania Noakes”
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