The Last Valley

STEEP SKIING IN AROLLA, SWITZERLAND

T HE SK IER ’S M AGA Z INE

F L IP B O O K SE R IE S 04

THE

VALLE Y

S T O RY/C A P T I O N S: D R E W TA B K E PHOTOGR APHY: CHRIS TIAN PONDELL A

PRESENTED BY

LAST

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ON THE COVER

From the Vignettes Hut, the northeast couloir of the Serre de ViubĂŠ is just a five minute hike.

The reward is a 3,200 foot run back to Arolla.

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“MY TOWN WAS FOUNDED 1,100 YE ARS AGO BY FIVE FAMILIES,

FOUR OF THEM

ARE STILL THERE.” —GILLES SIERRO, IFMGA GUIDE 04

FRANCE Berne

SW

THE PLACE

AROLL A , SWIT ZERL AND When to go: Ski lifts open from late November through early May. The main ski touring months run March through early June. Check with the Swiss Alpine Club (CAS) for hut openings and availability (Sac-Cas.Ch).

Don’t Miss: Evolène and La Forclaz, two other spectacular, uncrowded ski resorts lower in the Hérens valley.

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Geneva

GERMANY Z端rich

AUSTRIA

WITZERLAND

Arolla

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Christian Pondella, photographer PHOTO: PE T ER MORNING

THE TEAM

Drew Tabke, author and skier

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Gilles Sierro, local and lead guide

Caroline George, guide and skier

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ANDRÉ "DÉDE " ANZÉ V UI Born in Arolla in 1955, Anzévui has first descents on the North Face of Petit Mont Collon (1974), the North Face of Mont Blanc de Chellon (1987), and the Matterhorn North Face (1989). Now 59, Anzévui started the Freeride Experience guiding service in 2009.

He also operates Arolla’s snowplow service.

THE TRAILBLAZER

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HUT 12

THE HUT The Cabane des Vignettes and the peaks of the Arolla valley seen from the top of the ski area. The Pigne d’Arolla is to the immediate right of the hut. The Dent Blanche is the great summit in the background on the left. The route to the Col de Collon, which gives access to Italy’s Val d’Aosta, is the low valley center-left.

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WELCOME TO

Despite Arolla’s potential for developing into a world-class mountain resort, it has remained much as it was over a century ago. The ticket counter and the base station for the poma amount to the only resort base infrastructure. George and Tabke walk through town, with the Pigne d’Arolla in the background.

TWENTY FRANCS S’IL VO U S P L A I T,” T H E W O M A N AT T H E T I C K E T W I N D O W S A I D.

The price seemed low for three ski tickets, so I asked again. She confirmed 20 Swiss francs: 10 each for photographer Christian Pondella and me. Our other team member, Caroline Ware George, was an IFMGA guide, so hers was free. We grabbed the tickets, clicked in to our skis, slid around the back of the tiny booth—the only building at Arolla’s ski area base—and headed up the first poma lift.

A stunning panorama unfolded as we skittered up the icy track. Every vertical foot revealed more of one of Switzerland’s grandest and least known alpine valleys—a jumble of glaciers and peaks so massive it was hard to believe that it wasn’t on the mainstream European ski map.

This was no cable-car connected, four-valley mega domain like Verbier; Zermatt’s city-to-summit train systems and haute couture shopping were nowhere to be found. Located about 125 miles east from Geneva at the head of the Hérens Valley, Arolla is accessible only by car or local bus. There is no nightlife to speak of, a few mostly vacant hotels, and so few locals that we knew most of them within a few days.

Compared to the chaos of other destinations along the Haute Route— Chamonix, Verbier, and Zermatt—Arolla offered the same staggeringly immense terrain without the crowds. Arolla has one road, a few hotels, three pom lifts, and a population of 59. The tradeoff for having this hidden gem virtually to ourselves was the work required, as the poma lifts gained us minor vertical compared to the thousands of feet we would end up climbing daily. The payoff wouldn’t take long to reveal itself. —DREW TABKE

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The rocky face off the summit of the Mont Blanc de Cheilon in the Dix Basin can come into skiing condition in the spring. It has been skied just three times— first by Dédé Anzévui and then by Gilles Sierro.

THE

VILLAGE

For centuries, a high route to Val d’Aosta through the Col de Collon above Arolla allowed locals to trade with their neighbors on the other side of the mountains. The people in Val d’Aosta share the local language—a dialect of Franco-Provençal or Patois. On the hillside above Arolla’s few modern buildings sit ghostly wooden houses accessible only by footpath, creating a scene seemingly lost in time.

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Buy local. Tabke and Sierro eat beef from the pasture across the street in Evolene.

“FROM THE TOP OF THE SECOND POMA , W E S AW T H E S U M M I T O F 12 , 4 5 4 - F O O T P I G N E D ’A R O L L A — I T S M A S S I V E G L A C I E R T U M B L I N G S T R A I G H T T O WA R D U S , M O R P H I N G I N T O I C E FA L L S , C AV E S , A N D TEETERING SER ACS BEFORE POURING I N T O T H E B R O A D B A S I N B E L O W.” —DRE W TABKE

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Tabke and Sierro arrive at the entrance of the Alaska Dreams Couloir.

It’s called the Alaska Dreams couloir, but it’s anything but on this day, as Tabke feels his way down refrozen wet debris.

Sierro lays into a turn with some consequence in the company of the Pigne d'Arolla's chaotic Tsijore Nouve Glacier.

THE

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Tabke descends the ladder from the Pas de Chevres (Goat Pass) into the Dix Basin.

Tabke, who cut his teeth moutaineering in Washington’s Cascades, works his way down the North Face of Petit Mont Collon.

Tabke reaps the rewards of their pursuit, flashing a turn in the northeast couloir of the Serre de ViubĂŠ, the 3,200-foot line from the Vignettes hut to Arolla.

The Cabane des Vignettes is mainly solar-powered, and the cables leading to the building are water lines that draw from the glacier during the summer months.

Jean Michel Bournissen is the gregarious caretaker of the Vignettes hut.

Bournissen invites various guides (whose Haute Route groups are all in varying states of disarray throughout the hut) to a table for some wine, local cured beef, and tall tales.

Most of the guides know each other and cross paths frequently while in the mountains.

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Pondella described this as the steepest turn he ever shot. Sierro shows off his finely-tuned steep skiing technique.

Tabke finds sugary snow in the West Couloir of the Dent de Tsalion, 24 hours after competing at the Verbier Xtreme.

BA

The Kurhaus is an essential part of the Arolla valley. Built in 1896, the hotel was established to host the surge of British mountaineers arriving to this part of Switzerland.

ACK TO TOWN

A history lesson at the Kurhaus hotel lobby, with Sierro and Tabke.

EDITORIAL E D I T O R

John Stifter M A N A G I N G E D I T O R

John Clary Davies D I R E C T O R O F P H O T O G R A P H Y

David Reddick

A S S I S T A N T P H O T O E D I T O R

Anthony Smith A R T D I R E C T O R

Mike ‘Basher’ Taylor Andre 'Chato' Aganza

S T O R Y/ P H O T O S S T O R Y A N D C A P T I O N S B Y

Drew Tabke

PHOTOGRAPHY BY

Christian Pondella

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