Jon Morgan, Ben Bardsley and Ben Tibbetts recently achieved the best time and result that a British team has ever achieved in any ski mountaineering race. They came first in their age category and third overall in the Patrouille des Glaciers, the final and one of the most popular races of the ski mountaineering season. Here Ben Tibbetts explains what SkiMo is, why Brits aren’t traditionally very good at it, and recounts the adventure.
Ski mountaineering
Ski mountaineering (SkiMo) has been very slow to take off in Britain, both as a hobby and a competitive sport. It combines aspects of alpine climbing with ski touring and requires quite a broad set of skills. Most SkiMo races consist of ski touring uphill as fast as you can, often with the odd couloir boot-pack, and then charging downhill on variable off-piste terrain to the next transition, then back uphill and so on, along a circular route.
Many elite races involve relatively steep skiing, and a few involve Alpine ridgeline scrambles. Race skis are short (often 164cm for men, 157cm for women), narrow (60-64mm) and very light (690-800g per ski), making them somewhat challenging in difficult snow conditions compared to conventional touring skis.
In the Alpine countries a lot of races attract mass participation. Most races will have several categories. Entry-level participation on heavy touring kit is encouraged, and provides an exciting day out around a safe and secured course that one might not think or dare to do by oneself.
Brits aren’t traditionally very good at SkiMo
As well as off-piste skiing ability, the skills required to practice the sport at a high level, let alone compete, include avalanche awareness, navigation, glacial travel and winter climbing techniques.
The time investment to become proficient and safe is significant. This means that most Brits who do take up the sport do so in their mid-twenties, whereas many French, Swiss and Italian kids will be SkiMo racing from their late teens. At the highest level, understandably the Euros have a considerable margin on our humble efforts!
The Patrouille des Glaciers race 2014
The PDG is a high-mountain course organised by the Swiss Army. You race in teams of three skiers. The full course runs from Zermatt to Verbier, involving 4000m ascent over 53 km. I was racing in a team with Jon Morgan and Ben Bardsley - two of the most experienced British athletes, having each raced over 100 SkiMo races in Europe.
The PDG now attracts so many competitors that there are two separate days on which it runs (Z1 and Z2), and a shorter course departing from Arolla that is half the length on each day (A1 and A2). Our departure was the first day from Zermatt – Z1.
To complicate matters further, there are rolling start times – as early as 9pm for those want the maximum time to get along the course without missing a time checkpoint, to 1am if you hope to be faster. We chose the latest start on Wednesday (Thursday morning 1am) so we’d complete some of the race in the light.
The start
The first section of the race took us about one hour, climbing gently uphill to Stafel on snowy paths. You begin in trainers with your skis and boots on your backpack. We were in dense fog until about 2500m. At Stafel everyone ditched their trainers and pulled on ski boots and skis.
Shortly afterwards we reached Schönbie and entered glacial terrain - teams were obliged to put a 30m full-weight rope on here, then begin a long climb up the Stockli Glacier to just under the Tête Blanche at 3650m. A gentle breeze made it very cold and we all had difficulty maintaining any feeling in our hands.
At the Tête Blanche skins came off, the rope stayed on and we whizzed downhill towards the Col du Bertol. Jon is the most experienced skier so took the middle of the rope. This means you have no control in whether you get pulled over forwards or backwards by your buddies!
Just below the Col there was a short skin up before the long ski down to Arolla which marked the halfway point. There was lots of fresh snow lightly covering loads of rocks on this descent. It was still total darkness. Even with strong head torches we couldn't see much apart from lots of shadows in front of us. We all hit a lot of rocks - sparks for all to see.
Halfway - Arolla
At Arolla we were offered hot tea and dried fruit, but didn’t waste much time, and soon set off skinning up the icy piste to the base of the Col de Riedmatten, 1000m higher. Jon took the rope, hence BB had excess power so Jon and I attached to him with two bungees in series to even us out! Even the best teams in the world use bungee towing systems. It is great for morale as well as evening out any small differences.
Another 1400 people joined the course at Arolla, which meant double the amount of people on the course. Just before the boot-pack up the steep slope to the Col there were such a lot of people that the military organisers were stopping everyone to let the path clear. We had to wait about 10 minutes, which was pretty chilling and frustrating, though it probably happened to everyone.
Nearly a metre of snow fell high up the day before the race, so it’s hard to imagine how much work went into avalanche control with explosives and so on. It must be no joke for the race organisers to decide whether or not to let 5000 competitors race in little more than Lycra through the mountains under their responsibility!
A low moment
After the Col de Riedmatten we traversed round the Lac des Dix to the second feed station at La Barma. I arrived dizzy and dehydrated, so filled my bladder with a litre of sweet tea before heading off again. I was having a low moment so got a bungee tow off Jon for a bit while BB took the weight of the rope we used earlier.
At some points in these longer races it seems impossible to keep trying hard. Usually the body can handle it, and it is just a mental game. Working in a team helps get everyone through their dark moments.
Finishing on a high
On the last big climb up to the Rosablanche plateau we emerged into the sun. After a skinning section there was another long boot-pack, and it began to felt pretty hot, even at 8am. We urgently rushed off the last descent and climb to Col de la Chaux and the pistes of Verbier resort. The last descent was fast and sweet, but the finish was about 1500m of running, which finished me off!
None of us had any idea how we were doing throughout the race, as there are thousands of people all over the course. We only knew that we had passed most of the ’500s’ numbers that had started with us and, as this was the latest start time, that was a good thing. We were surprised and delighted with our result: 8hr39. More Brits are getting into SkiMo - it was great to see about 20 teams participate at all different levels in the PDG this year.
Tips for getting into SkiMo
Di Gilbert has been organizing a series of races in Scotland for the past two years. Check out www.skimoscotland.co.uk for more info about these, or contact me at ben@bentibbetts.com for more info about ski mountaineering and racing in Europe.
About Ben Tibbetts
Ben Tibbetts is an adventure photographer and Aspirant IFMGA Alpine Guide working primarily in Greenland, Britain and the Alps. Having skied from a young age he has been based in the Alps on and off for the last seven years.
www.bentibbettsguiding.com
www.bentibbettsphotography.com
The team were supported by Rab. The British Ski Mountaineering Team is supported by the BMC.
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