World’s Longest Ski Run: Vallée Blanche in Chamonix, France

Shaman's Vol blanch is the most iconic ski run in Europe with a claimed vertical drop of up to 9,000 ft this French Alps run has made a name for itself as the longest lift served ski descent in the world but the Vol blanch is far from your typical ski run and not only does it not technically exist within the bounds of a ski resort but the descent is so dangerous that you need to hire a guide and bring specialized equipment to make your way down in one piece oh in about that 9,000 ft vertical descent it turns out that depending on snow conditions there's a little bit more to that story this past January we hired a guide to take us down this Backcountry descent and in this video we'll give you a full tour of this Legendary Run the one-of-a-kind experience you'll get by doing it and why the next time you go this run will have probably changed substantially since the time of this recording let's jump in we started out the day on the auu dumi cable car which begins right in downtown Shaman this lift system is included with a Mont block unlimited pass which went for €83 at the time of this recording but unlike the rest of Shaman ski resorts is not included on the icon pass the IDI tram Network consists of two lifts which combine to achieve an absolutely astounding 9,200 foot vertical rise giving it the longest vertical Ascent of any cable car system in the world the second stage of the tram is nothing short of fascinating involving a 5,000 ft vertical Ascent without any supporting towers and at times spanning thousands of feet above the ground on the surface these trams are only intended to access a visitor center most of the people who go up the lift go right back down after checking out the panoramic viewing platform which admittedly has some of the most incredible Alpine views anywhere in Europe and heading to the cafe for some French pastries and coffee as well as some more incredible views of shyaman however the unofficial access to the vary Branch comes from the top of this lift Network as well with access coming through through a tunnel and then an extremely narrow mountain ridge the top of this path is extremely dangerous and involves some mountaining it was here that we got all our equipment prepared including an avalanche Beacon ski backpack rope and crampons now's probably a good time to introduce you to our guide Jean he's been giving tours of the volley blanch for over three decades and knew the place like the back of his hand you will not believe the wealth of information he'll share throughout the length of this descent which turned the experience from just an amazing ski run into an incredibly informative Alpine Journey if you head to the volley blanch and want an outstanding guide we'd highly recommend him and the team at Shaman guides for more information or to book you can click the link in the description at this point we had to prepare for the descents down the ridge due to the Steep narrow nature of the hike down Jean and I attached ourselves together by rope it was now that we began our descents down Jean LED from the back which would allow him to save me from falling falling if I slipped and crucially would save me from potentially piercing someone else with my cramp on when conditions allow it is possible to avoid the hike and ski down the Kolar you see to the right but the snow pack was too thin to take that option on the day of this recording have you ever skied down that I'm saying time but not today not today you might notice that three Mountaineers to our left are choosing a slightly more straight path than the rest of us in walking down the ridge backwards Jean mentions that this is extremely poor practice and Incredibly dangerous not only can these folks not see the steps directly beneath them but if one of them were to slip there would be a high likelihood that their crampons would pierce the person directly below them take a look at the guy in the blue jacket if he were to lose his step his crampon would pierce his buddy right in the chest this could even result in a cascading effect of multiple people colliding into one another and since everyone is wearing weapon grid crampons on their feet the whole situation could turn into a profound disaster so in other words when you're doing this descent facing forward and carefully watching where you step are must dos for a safe experience the hike down lasted for about 300 ft and ended with an incredible view of au ver which is the fifth highest mountain in the shamani Valley area at this point it was time to take off our hiking gear and switch into skis good job thank we just finished that descent down there staircase took off the crampons and put the skis on and we are beginning The Descent so this is where the world's longest run officially starts and it looks pretty easy at a first glance my track from now and during 18 kilm we are skiing on the glacier mhm here we have cras everywhere we cannot see the creas because we are skiing on snow Bridge mhm okay so we expect the snow Bridge strong off supporting our body but we never know so as Johan mentioned for the vast majority of this run will be skiing down a rapidly changing Glacier with hidden creases that aren't immediately visible if you end up in the wrong place you could end up falling in you might notice we're skiing pretty cautiously down what looks like an intermediate or maybe advanced level Trail the nature of the potential kasses around us is why but while this first part of the line involves much more cautious skiing than one might be used to we got an absolutely incredible view of the auid midi backside we then continued our way down the ice bridge and it was only a bit further down from here that we got our first sense of just how much the glacier on which the volley Branch sits has changed over the past few decades you see this Hut uh-huh we have finished the construction in 1991 mhm the glacier was at the bottom of the wood oh my God so as Jean explained during the winter the glacier builds up a multimeter snow base just as a typical high Alpine environment would but during the summer the glacier is a lot more impacted by the sun's rays which melts the snow and transforms its composition the new layer of snow each year also puts pressure on the glacier and combined with gravity gradually slides it down the Valley according to Jean glaciers like this one are sometimes moving more than 20 cm or 8 in a day you might start to notice the wind lips around this part of The Descent this part of the valley is home to stunning views but it's also incredibly exposed so not only are creases an issue but you also have to watch out for crusty and rapidly changing snow conditions which can make it even harder to pinpoint these weaker areas of the glacier conditions on the day we visited were somewhat below average and this will continue to become more obvious as we get further down it was also around this point that the volley blanch had its first split in the route and we took a slightly different path than most of the others on the glacier so Johan can you explain to me the difference between this route and that one down there that one is a regular one the more easy way so this is the harder of the two routes in this part of The Descent it's not exactly the steepest area in the world but it's def Ely advanced in nature and combined with the hidden creases requires the same Precision we saw in earlier parts of the run the nice thing about this part of the run it had the best quality snow of the entire descent and there were turns that weren't tracked even though it hadn't snowed in over a week but while the snow is excellent we still couldn't let our guard down and every time I make a turn I check if if there is no crew us mhm if we are going too fast not good the skiers you know they turn always at the same spot mhm that makes the snow Bridge thinner and thinner you did that the day before and today you have the hole Yeah so I think a rule of thumb when you're off piece like in a normal Trail is if you're following tracks it's probably on the safer side but here it's the opposite it was at this point that Jean let me take a a little bit of a free ride down at a slightly faster Pace but only if I followed his line at this point Jean explains that the volley Branch Glacier starts to get steep with lots of creases meaning we had to take a very specific path to get down this next area he going quite Steep uhhuh and he broke off in many pieces it is a nice fold yeah so we have to escape the High full going to the left side M that's after that we have to cross right underneath the High full we are compelled to go right to Traverse the High full and to ski the other side got it yeah so in other words Jean has just explained that the steepness has turned this part of the glacier into an icefall we avoid it by starting on the left side of the glacier and then after the first steep part we Traverse across the icefall and end up on the right side the area of the Traverse will be one of the most dangerous parts of the entire descent it was about here that we got to the point where we had to stay far to the left to avoid the ice fall and as with the earlier parts of the glacier creases were still a concern but a look to the right showed just how massive these carasses could get under the right circumstances it was near the end of the Steep section that Jean explained to me that we actually had an option to go in for a break yes that's right there's a public Lodge to stop in at on a back country route you would never find that in North America you want try to go to the to the Hut yeah I'm down let's do it it turned out the Hut was a popular stopping ground for volley blanch tours and we were far from the only visitors there that day it also turned out that this was the second day of the entire winter this Hut was open this was also where we got our first view of the ice falls from the other side showing how profoundly dangerous they really were right now yeah I see that the most shocking part of this little Hut in the middle of nowhere it was a full-service restaurant okay so this food's like in the middle of nowhere so they have a bunch of pies and bread it looks like so how do they get this all here they get the food with helicopter both Jean and I got a slice of pear and chocolate pie which was absolutely delicious but the Hut offered actual meals as well including pasta and kiche and you could also pair your food with beer or wine also there's no Wi-fi so you have to pay for everything in cash after that Hardy meal it was time to get back on the route and Traverse across the now quite obviously treacherous ice ball but before we even reached the Traverse we saw our first blatant Kass out in the open so that's a crass right there a very visible one yeah a very visible one that was the slope few days we say the gler are working that mean every day you know something is happening in other words the parts of the Run we did earlier could open up into carasses like you see here at any time and with that we started our way on the ice fall Traverse but not before stopping to take a quick look back at the route we just came from from so that's why you have like so many skiers here like a lot of them are probably experts and they could ski faster but they're choosing not to because they know the dangers of the glacier absolutely and here this is what you call the high SCH a glance up shows just how gigantic these chunks of ice really are it's getting broken you know at any moment wow Jean was saying that any one of these ice chunks could break off at any time meaning we were standing in perilous territory pay close attention to the skew in Black who just appeared on the right John is not a fan of him you see this guy make a jump a jump that means you have no control if the landing is bad it's finished right it's typically you know a skier skier are not mountaineering people if you want learn about the mountain you have to start from the bottom and and you go to the summit mhm we never learn anything when we start from the top and we go down M you learn something when you go up yeah like touring up like T yeah exactly yeah at this point of the Traverse we entered a massive Valley with extraordinary views in every direction Wow have nice view this is so beautiful oh my God oh my God this is insane this is crazy it was around this time when snow conditions started to become a lot more icy and the casses became much more prominent the wide range of roots from earlier in the fary brunch had deteriorated into what was essentially just one track down by the time we got down here the snow conditions had deteriorated from a nice packed powder to what was basically a hard pack so I I noticed it's gotten a lot more icy it had had indeed gotten a lot more icy and speaking of ice this was the closest we got to any of the ice Falls but as Jean was about to explain the ice Falls used to be much more prominent than they are today in the past all the all the glacier was covered by this kind of ice formation but not only in few spot this is why it get the the name of the the Sea of Ice is go this look like frozen wave a little bit got it so it's gotten it used to be more like this but now it's flatter now it's flat in the past it was a f of creas it was a glacier and we for maybe um 300 M only one track H and people were sliding like this all together wow okay so now it's big and there's a lot of turns big it's quite easy wow so it turns out that the section we just did used to be much more typical in Upper sections of the valley blanch but due to the glacier receding it's now much wider and easier to go down those steeper sections as we got further down it kept getting icier and bumpier as per Jean these ridges could have turned into carasses at any time you might also notice some Mountain sides that look pretty bare and Rocky near the bottom more on that in a bit in summer time we have no snow at this level not possible to ski so it's ice so it is still ice yes but it's just not snow underneath not too far maybe 20 cm below it's full he mhm got it so basically this is still a glacier we're still on a glacier we are still on the glacier but it is at the point where during the summer there's no snow pack on it it's directly ice it's a little bit more higher mhm So eventually this will all melt yeah yes when it's uncover you know mhm the Chang is very fast right got it so as Jean mentioned the lack of a snow cover during the summer has had a profound impact on the size of the glacier in this area in fact the Steep and Rocky Mountain sides we mentioned earlier were covered by glacier up until only the past few decades the ice has receded every year and as you'll see shortly the rate of recession has only increased more and more in recent Seasons by the time we got down here it started to get really Rocky you'll see what looked like mounds of rock crusted ice protruding from the ground and as John was about to explain there's a reason for that even if this rooky underneath it's he you see here oh so there's rock on top of ice cuz we're still on a glacier yeah yeah but below it's full height mhm and in fact this rock is the kind of protection also because the beam the Sunbeam they are not striking the the height yeah it helps with protection yeah but while the Rocks provided protection from the Sun for some parts of the glacier it wasn't enough and as the valley got rockier and rockier it got to the point where it wasn't going to be skiable anymore you see the people over there yeah yeah this is where we you might notice directly in front of us that there's what looks like a lift with a blue terminal well it turns out that Shaman was in the process of building a new Gondola down to the valley when we were doing our descent and by the time you're watching this it's already open but since the gondola was not open when we did our run and since the lack of a snow cover meant we couldn't ski directly into shyamani we were in for a lengthy hike out so from here there's just not enough snow we got to hike like maybe an hour yeah time to start hiking so roughly 2,000 ft before we would have reached shamani our skiable descent down the valley blanch was over we traversed down 6,900 ft of Glacier snow and ice but at this point it was time to say goodbye to this beautiful Valley and make our way to a lengthy set of over 600 stairs so this bridge on what's the story behind this just to make sure you can't get stuck in that many people to, of people were used to visiting an ice cave but now the ice cave disappear as Jean later explained these stairs were designed not just for Mountaineers to hike out of the volley blanch but also for tourists to climb down and see the valley every year the Mont branc company has added new steps to account for the glacier's recession every few few years they do this they leave a plaque showing where the glacier existed at the time they installed the stairs and viewing these plaques versus where the ground level is today paints a shocking story of just how fast the glacier is Vanishing around 2/3 of the way up the hike we came across a gondola that wasn't operating this was the old lift that the gondola we saw earlier is replacing when this Gondola was installed in 1988 the base terminal was at the actual level of the glacier it is nothing short of tragic to see just how far down the glacier has receded compared to back then and only a few yards up from this Gondola base terminal you'll see where the glacier sat in 1920 this means that over the course of 36 years the glacier receded over 10 times faster than it did in the previous 68 years that is a profoundly concerning increase in its rate of contraction and sadly in the next 36 years it's unclear whether this part of the glacier will even exist at all and there's a wholly separate tragedy going on here too now that the new Gondola is open very few tourists and Mountaineers will see these Glacier level plaqu meaning that fewer folks will understand just how much and how quickly climate change is affecting skiing in the shaman region the hike out was exhausting and took 54 minutes but while we couldn't ski all the way back to town we were greeted by a stunning Cog Railway and Charming Welcome Center you understand why when you you are booking the suet here they has good FL in good shape okay if you want you can enjoy the scenery and have the food and you have a bar and everything oh man that's awesome wow what was really surprising me is just seeing how much the glaciers melted like seeing all those signs yeah yeah it's crazy I just decided to soak in the views for a little bit so John and I parted ways here John thanks so much thank thanks for coming was something but really appreciate all the guidance and everything thanks for coming of course of course we'll do it again next year and finally I hopped on the Cog Railway which winded through narrow mountain ridges for a half hour ride back to Shaman so that was the Vol blanch a descent that's arguably the most famous Backcountry route in Europe this run may not seem like more than a typical intermediate or Advanced Run for the majority of The Descent but the nature of the glacier formed terrain ends up making it one of the most dangerous descents in the world one can access from a lift and one you have to take surprisingly slow and possess a lot of technical touring skills to do safely and while some will claim a 9,000 ft vertical drop which would make it the longest lift serve skiable descent in the world the nature of the bottom part of the valley means that for the last 2,000 ft the terrain is not skiable unless conditions are excellent and you have to take a train to get back into town and finally the glacier is receding so rapidly every year that it's only a matter of time before this area isn't skiable at all ultimately the Vol blanch is a once in a-lifetime skiable experience but there's only so long until it's gone forever

Channel: PeakRankings

Views: 716,991

Keywords: longest ski run in the world, longest ski run in europe, longest ski run ever, chamonix france, chamonix mont blanc, chamonix vallee blanche, aiguille du midi, mer de glace, vallee blanche, vallee blanche skiing, aiguille du midi skiing, aiguille du midi cable car, vallee blanche chamonix, vallee blanche crevasse, train du montenvers mer de glace

Id: Hzj74uoIS34

Length: 22min 23sec (1343 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 09 2024