Mt. Fallare - Chamonix (Italy, again) Day 5

The view from the summit of Mt. FallareI guess the guys thought I was handy enough to have around to bury myself putting in boot packs that they invited me back for another trip through the tunnel to check out another cool summit, this time above Courmayeur. Mt. Fallare is a popular hiking destination in the summer with a nice Euro-style hut not far from the base.

Another crazy-ass road took us about a thousand meters up through cattle grazing land to a sweet looking hotel at the trail head. The peak was clearly visible from the car with wide open slopes seemingly leading right to it. But closer inspection on the ground revealed very complex topography with numerous gullies and chasms along the way. A road navigated much of the approach and I was looking forward to a cruiser out when we were done. 

Wide open skinning from the carFor some reason, I thought this was new terrain for Jean and Fred so I spied my own idea of the final approach to the summit. Jean and Fred skinning from my vantage point on the ridgeI liked the look of the ridge and Jean and Fred headed off up the bowl directly below the south face. This turned out to be much more straightforward than the ridge. By the top, I was about 10 minutes in front of them but post holed and rock climbed instead of just skinning like they did. I'm sure they just thought I was a stupid, stubborn American. I told them I was just an idiot. They laughed.

You'd think the Italians are Catholic, or something.

Jean topping out on the summit ridge

Fred...summit #1From the top (3090 meters) we dropped into a nice wide couloir to the north and enjoyed tasty powder for about 300 meters. Instead of milking the run further, Jean had designs on a second summit and north facing couloir to our east. So we traversed over and started skinning and booting back up. This aspect was different enough that it had seen a lot more wind so the conditions were variable.Jean under the north side of Ars

After another summit, we slid into the couloir which was steeper and more technical. Jean spying the entrance

... and dropping in.

Fred doing his partTurns were still fun. We hooked back the way we came and Jean pointed to the north east face as our next climbing objective. Fred was more keen to just hit the col and head back to the car but he followed, albeit at a distance, and we topped out on Fallare a second time. Headed back up for one more

Another Stair MasterFred was funny at the top, trying hard to be angry at us for making him climb more than he wanted but the corn on the south face brightened his mood considerably.

We missed corn o'clock by a wide margin but my Cho Oyu skis made easy work of the slop. The skiing was super fun all the way to the car. It was the kind of ski-anywhere terrain with rolls and dales that kept us giggling like kids. So fun. The road out was as good as I hoped and we skidded to a stop a few steps from the car. Silly fun.