Another New Ski Descent for Vivian Bruchez and Kilian Jornet
New descent on the South West face of Aiguille du Chardonnet
The well known steep skiing duo have made another first descent on the South West face of Aiguille du Chardonnet.
The South West couloir was first climbed by Roger Frisian-Roche and Armand Charlet in 1925 and had not seen a ski descent until Christmas day 2015.
The pair first tried to ski this new steep and exposed line on December 8th but turned around due to lack of time. With both of them having Christmas day free they thought of no better way to spend their day than skiing a new line of this iconic mountain.
The pair made a first descent on the other side of the Chardonnet a couple of years ago by skiing the classic mountaineering route, the Migot Spur, and have since become well know for skiing difficult routes around the Mont Blanc Massif over the past few years.
Vivian Bruchez is a Chamonix local and has admired the Chardonnet since his school days, gazing up at it from his classroom. He is a mountain guide and has made a name for himself skiing where others thought was not possible. The term ‘dry skiing’ has been associated with many of his descents. This is because he does not like to take his skis off his feet and will resist from making abseils over ‘dry’ patches, or places with little or no snow cover. Instead he will ski down carefully through the rocks often down-climbing with his skis still attached.
Kilian Jornet comes from the world of Ultra running and has proved he can also handle everything the mountain can throw at him. Making numerous ‘extreme’ ski descents and also setting the standard for long distance ski mountaineering challenges.
The new line on the South West face combined both of their loves, skiing and mountaineering, and was a perfect showcase of their skills in the mountains.
The route took them 8 hours to climb and ski and despite encountering no powder snow along the route, they loved the combination of climbing and skiing and the variety of the descent, changing between crampons and skis as they made their way down the mountain.
