Toule Glacier - South Face

The south face of the Toule Glacier off the Helbronner lift in Italy may be easily accessible from Chamonix, but it's far removed from the crowds of the Grands Montets on a powder day. In fact, after spending ten minutes too long with Andy in the queue for the GM top station, we decided we'd had enough, and drove through the Mont Blanc Tunnel to Italy instead.

We'd heard reports of 60cm of new snow in Italy (twice as much as the Chamonix side), and we weren't to be disappointed. Although the powder was fairly heavy, it was massively deep. When it's good, the descent from Helbronner is about as good as it gets for lift-accessed skiing - 2000m of vertical through big powder-fields, couloirs, and finally through the trees down to the valley.

Skiing round from the Helbronner station to the drop-in at the Col Orientale du Toule (3400m)

Cold and windy as usual at the lip above the metal staircase. This is exposed to the westerly winds coming across the Geant Glacier, and is often obscured in a cloud of blown spindrift

Getting set to drop in

Skiing the couloir on the left edge of the glacier

The super-deep powder called for an unorthodox approach...

Carving out the turns

Helicopter searching for a mystery injured skier, with the

spectacularly plastered Aiguille Noire de Peuterey behind


Andy taking a drop-off at speed


Dropping in for the third lap



Blasting into the couloir




The unique and patent-pending Thow-tips-up-technique being deployed to full effect