Helicopters+France= "Thanks! Opps I crapped my pants."

The snow just keeps coming. It's getting exciting and sketchy all at the same time. Yesterday (Saturday) the weather broke for a bit in the evening and it looked like today would be bluebrid. With the clearing came the colder, no freezing, temps and wind. La Plange's snow is changing daily and keeping ahead of the danger is tough. The plan was to get some P.I.D.A done before the danger went up anymore.

Our neighboring resort, Les Arcs, had 3 avalanches fatalities in a huge slide this weekend. 9 meters deep! It had been 24 hours this morning since the slide happened and they still hadn't found the third body. The area where the slide occurred is almost inaccessible, so no cats to help move snow. Lots of digging. Val Thorens, near Courchevel, also added a death this week.

I think the "higher ups" were getting the picture. The danger is going up and the snow keeps falling. Thursday, Nico and Jean Eves set off an avalanche that was 3 meters deep and at least 300 meters wide. That was just one of the two it took to clear the whole area between the Roche De Mio and the gondola mid-station. HUGE!

Friday morning the weather was partly cloudy and clear enough the get back at it. Olivier and I were paired up again and headed to the Traverse Chair for a round trip of dropping charges off the chair. Our next mission was up the Bellecote Chalet chair for another round of air bombs. Those three charges set off two big avalanches a meter deep under and ran below the chair. On our way back down we did another route in the same area under the Chalet chair. We were less productive this round but the good sized slide we did have broke above us and I almost shit my pants. Remember Thursday?

That day the rumor was that we were going to use the helicopter (heli, bird, ship, chopper, huey, etc) for some P.I.D.A work. YES! I was stoked to say the least, but it didn't happen that day. The weather changed again and no flying.....Until today.

We came into work early and packed up everything we needed for the morning rounds. Met the bird at the base and flew to our drop areas. I was in a crew with Olivier and Vins. The areas we covered were above the Traverse Chair on the southwest ridge line of Bellecote, and the area above La Combe.

I don't mind flying and I had been in a helicopter before. I felt like things were good and sat back and enjoyed the ride. It was when we circled the "knife" ridge where we were to land when I started to think. The pilot took a loop of the ridge line and I hadn't seen any "good" landing zones. Good thing I'm not a heli pilot, cause our asses would have been hiking. The L.Z. he did choose wasn't really a landing zone, rather a hovering zone. As I jumped out of the bird I noticed only one scag was on the snow and I'm standing on a knife ridge with three people. The heli takes off and the fun began. I couldn't stop thinking about the snow we were standing on. What's under it? What's stopping us from falling off this ridge with the snow? Which way do I fall if I fall? I don't know what was under the snow, the snow didn't move with us, and...you couldn't fall. We were all carrying 10 to 15 pounds of nitroglicern on our backs. We made our way down the ridge (I was last, and on both skis) to an area big enough for three grown men to put explosive charges together.

We weren't very productive today, but the trip was amazing. Our last area to control was a section above La Combe that's filled with coulior after coulior. Once our last charge went off we climbed down into the same coulior we had just thrown the charge. To ski. To access this last coulior you have to climb down a 15 foot ladder. IT WAS AAAWESOME!!!! I had been looking at this line since I first rode up to the glacier, and it was everything I imagined. Skiing down an avalanche path you just created is pretty cool too.

The forecast is for snow the rest of the week. I'll keep you posted!!

I almost forgot! Today a patroller in the Roche de Mio sector found a goat. Not a mountain goat, a farmer's goat that disappeared over the summer. The goat was found at 2000 meters in elevation. A lot higher then the farm he's from near Montchavin. La Plagne is thinking of using it as a avy goat.

Check out the video below!!!!