Jeremy’s Alpine Adventure

Would you hike 10 hours in the dark for the chance at an epic ride down an Alpine slope? Jeremy Jones did it the other day, and chronicles the trip here, with some amazing photos. Excerpt:

On clear nights the snow freezes solid and as the day warms up the snow heats up and by the afternoon avalanches start pouring down the mountains. Because of this we do our hiking in the dark and are riding at first light. This was especially important because to hit this line we would have to hike over major exposure for over an hour to get to the peak.

To be safe we started our hike just after dinner at 10pm. With no moon and thick woods to start we were lost instantly. I raging river was our savior and it allowed us to hop on the rocks, gain altitude and get above treeline. Once on the snow hours melted together and hardly a word was spoken between us. On the glacier we roped, turned our headlamps on high and weaved our way to the base of the line. Twilight hit just as we reached the first bergchrund and from there the race was on.

I had been pacing myself all night but once I got on the final pitch over the exposure I gave it everything I had so I could limit my time on the hanging snowfield. The conditions were perfect, the snow was still cold but soft and just after 8 AM we dropped into our line.