Kitesurfing in the Olympic Games, but windsurfing is dropped

Kitesurfing has been announced as an official sport for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.  This decision was  made by the International Sailing Federation.

Kitesurfing at the Olympics will boost kitesurfing's profile worldwide and could see the sport become more "mainstream".

However, windsurfing has been dropped, apparently in favour of kitesurfing.  I don't agree with this.  Windsurfing has a long heritage and is a well established water sport. I think it should have been retained in the Olympics.

In addition, the vast majority of kitesurfing worldwide is either freestyle/freeride/wakestyle on twin tip boards or wave riding on surfboards.  The Olympic event will be course racing on race boards - a discipline that relatively few kitesurfers currently do - even at competitions.

It will be interesting to see how this goes.  A sudden surge in popularity for kitesurfing could put a lot of pressure on locations that are already becoming crowded, and beginners who don't take lessons will put themselves and others at serious risk.

I hope that the Olympic kitesurfing events go well and that this contributes to kitesurfing's acceptance as the safe and fun sport that it is.

I offer my commiserations to windsurfers, including some buddies.

Links

• Kiteboarding Becomes an Olympic Sport, inMotion Kitesurfing
• Kiteboarding to replace windsurfing at 2016 Rio Olympics,  BBC Sport 

Fantastic ski run down the Vallee Blanche glacier

The forecast for Thursday was good so we bought tickets and headed up to the Aguille du Midi.  I chatted to a group of 6 French alpine soldiers in the telepherique.  They are based near Bourg St Maurice (near Val d'Isere) and were heading up for some training.  There were very friendly.  One mentioned the speed flyer  who had died up there on Monday.

Getting out of the tunnel into the sun was a breath taking experience.  The view is superb.  The Matterhorn, Monte Rosa, the Grand Combin, Mont Blanc and all the peaks around Chamonix were clear, we could even see to Geneva.

The skiers in the first telepherique were all hard core.  Glen Plake was among them, his blond hard down over his shoulders rather than spiked up punk style.  Most skiers headed off to do peaks from the Col du Midi.  Dan and his wife (but guides) were heading for the Dome du Gouter

The descent down the steep ridge is still scary, even hanging on to the rope hand rail. Some have slipped here and died.

After a few photos, Mark and I took off down the Vallee Blanche glacier.  If there is a heaven on earth, this is it, or at least a stepping point along the way.  The skiing was fast on firm icy snow.  We followed track to the right of the main ice fall, which turned out to be a bad move.  The slope to the right of the ice fall got steeper then was covered for sections with frozen avalanche debris.

While we were not to worried about further avalanches, it was very difficult to negotiate.  I dug a ski tip and fell, sliding for a while down hill on my back.  I came halted after a few metres and retrieved my ski which had come off my foot and its safety strap.  I was lucky not to lose it down a crevasse.  

Skiing the rest of this slope was difficult as the snow was melting and we were breaking through the crust, but we eventually made it to the bottom of the ice fall.  Most of the other skiers around had descended on the other side below the Requin Refuge (hut) which looked like a better descent.  We skied across to the tracks, stepping gingerly over a couple of crevasses.  

Our route down the Vallee Blanche

After some double poling and straight running we got onto some steeper slopes, then glacial ice.  We stopped near the staircase that tourists use to visit the ice grotto and had some lunch in the sun, with the Choucas (alpine birds) visiting us for some food.

We had a look through the ice grotto, then practiced our glacier rescue teqnique holding a fall then setting up a z-pulley haulage system.

We climbed up the staircase then up a path to the hotel at the Montenvers tourist railway, that was still not operating due to fallen trees on the tracks from the wind storm.

It was a long walk down along the tracks, then onto a path, but there were great views of the Chamonix valley.  We headed for the Cafe where we had started the day and had a beer, coffee and a lovely bowl of chips.  

This was our last day of skiing for the trip, and it was yet another hard but rewarding one.

Descent graph - part 1

Descent graph - part 2

Col du Passon and ski down Le Tour Glacier

We headed out from the Argentiere hut and skied up for a short distance toward the Col du Tour Noir.  We say Andy and Heiko climbing a steep couloir on the Aguille Rouge, then skied back down to the Argentiere Glacier on firm icy snow.

We met up with Simeon below the hut and skied down the glacier for a bit.  Simeon headed back to the Argentiere lift while Mark and I tackled the Col du Passon.

The steep traverse on icy snow was quite intimidating.  We started walking with our crampons on but were soon punching right though the icy crust, so we swapped to skis with skins.  A slip here could easily result in a long fall to the glacier below, possibly over steep rocks.   One French skier flew up past us on wide skis, skins and ski crampons.

This route is now used when the Col du Chardonnet is impassable due to the receding snow, as has been the case in recent years, but not this year.

After a lengthy traverse we gained some easier slopes then headed up to the col, which is quite difficult to pick out.  This would be tricky in poor visibility. The final climb up to the col was steep and icy. We used or ice axes and crampons, with some occasional front pointing.

At the top I chatted to a couple of Swedish skiers and two french locals while Mark climbed the col.  Mark and I skied down with the two French skiers who were happy to show as the way.  There were no obvious crevasses high on the slopes or the Le Tour Glacier and the snow was quite good, but it turned crusty and wet as we descended.  I managed to do a somersault once when my ski tips dived below the crust.

We headed left down the glacier skiing the increasingly heavy snow, but there was no sign of avalanches.  Towards the bottom the snow ran out so we scrambled down steep slippery scrub to get to a final patch of snow at the finish of the run.  The French guys said we might see a Sanglier (wild pig), but we didn't.  We had French cheese and sausage for lunch at the creek.

The route down the middle of the glacier had more snow but is more dangerous due to small cliffs and crevasses.  We found out later a skier had died on this descent a few weeks earlier, caught in an avalanche.

We also found out that a local "speed flyer" - a skier with a small parachute (not as big as a paraglider) had also just died attempting to launch off the Aguille du Midi.  Many die around Chamonix, locals and visitors.  We were determined to not become another statistic!

We chatted at Le Tour waiting for the bus, talking about extreme skiers such as Jean Marc Bovin (dead), Patrick Vallencent (dead) and Sylvain Saudin, who used to have a restaurant in Chamonix, and possibly still does.

This was another hard ski day that tested us both. We were happy it went well.