Hello Thomas,
Thank you for posting. It is such a dramatic place, trouble is a lot of the terrain that creates that impression isn't so good for the wind over distance. Do you have much trouble with rotor (gust and lull cycles) with SE winds coming up and over the ridge along Helbronner?
Vallée Blanche and the area adjoining Mont Blanc. Chamonix, France is just in the valley to the right of the Massif with Courmayeur, Italy just below the ridge line to the upper left.
I noticed a few serac areas across the snow field NW of Helbronner. I suspect you try to stay out of those areas, in the upper or mid slope area? I recall some great, deep powder in that area. Have any problems in the past drifting into serac zones, how about uplift zones by steep mountain sides? Back in the day, C kites didn't depower all that well!
A serac zone in Vallée Blanche. A glacier is more or less a continuous moving flow of ice, which develops stretch marks or seracs at certain friction and turning points with underlying crevasses. I recall a couple of skiers are said to fall into crevasses here each year.
From:
http://www.noc.utoronto.ca/~mikep/peterson_m.html
Does this show part of the area of the Col du Midi? I never descended from L'Aiguille du Midi but came from the Courmayeur side via Helbronner sometime back. Looks like a nice plateau.
Wow, from the tunnel all the way up to the split into Vallée Noir and Vallée Blanche. That is a long run, what wind direction works for that? I recall a few serac zones through there as well, did you jump them or just go to one side or the other? Then again, it is sort of like kiting through some really gnarly rolling waves, like from the wake of supertanker. Any kiters ever end up in crevasse? Hope not.
It may show up a bit better in this one.
CLICK PHOTO for full sized image
It is a magnificent area, worth some hassles to try to kite it for an expert like yourself. Have a great winter!
Quote:
Originally Posted by tomchx
Hello RickI,
Aboards told me that you had a few question's, so here i am 
Yes i did kite a few time in the start of the vallée Blanche, a place named "col du midi", just under l'aiguille, it's a nice place, really big, wind are not to good like you said..., S-E winds work's good (coming from Helbronner).
I Kited to up la mer de glace (just on top of the cave) up to "la vallée noir and vallée Blanche", but same story with the wind...
Hope to see you kiting in Cham on day A+ |