Ribena’s Logs

A nice walk with Cami in the sun (although the air is still a bit fresh, fortunately), up past belvedere and returning via the top of Marmitte dei Giganti. Followed by a nice cappuccino in the piazza. A nice way to start the day before going to work :-)

Short ski tour with Karen and Dermot from Julierpass up towards Piz Campagnung. Karen was getting blisters on both feet so we decided to do a shorter route up the small peak to the left of campangnung. Beautiful powder still up high, but unfortunately the approach and descent as far as the base of campangung etc had a pretty bad crust from wind and sun. Fun giro all the same. lovely to be out with Karen and Dermot! :-)

(weather was mix of sunny earlier on then pretty covered, with high winds on the top...)

Serena, Davide and I started from just below Julierpass (2150m) and went to the summit of Piz Campanung, 2826m(1.5-2 hrs). Beautiful powder and bluebird skies :-) We decided to ski down the other side to get more northerly facing snow because the sun was pretty hot. We skied down about 800m of amazing powder slopes and then because the conditions were so nice we skinned back up to another summit (2860m). Then we skied down the whole way to the lake Marmerera (1708m). Absolutely magic day with amazing snow . Happy out!!!!

Did a pretty short but very sweet ski tour with Ned and Jeff from just below Julierpass (2150) to the smaller high point just to the left of Piz Campanung. We had intended on going to the top of Campanung itself, but Ned was feeling a bit tired so we chose the lower peak, and then Jeff and I did a couple of laps :-) There was powder the whole way pretty much from the carpark to the top and back- FANTASTIC!!!! my new skis are working a treat!!!

Then home in time for work. Not bad ;-)

It snowed yesterday a good 30cm up in Engadina! Ned, Jeff and I headed up to do a new tour for us, Munt Musella, starting on the Engadina valley floor at Chamues-ch. The climb is half in woods and then open snow covered slopes. Absolutely fantastic tour, with fresh snow and nearly no tracks (just one dude ahead of us...). I had a ball on my new skis! It's the first time i managed a pretty tight descent through the trees (the second part of the descent) without difficulty! The top part , with open powder slopes was pure bliss.

Home in time for work :-)

Madesimo was looking pretty sad today, shitty snow, but at least still nice snow in Val di Lei, if you avoid the exposed stones on the top of the pistes!!! Poor visibility in Lei so there weren't that many people for a sunday. We "rescued" a little girl from the slope who was refusing to ski down with her dad and he couldn't carry her cause he was on a snowboard. ;-)

A great group for a tour today, me, Serena, davide, mauro and Fabio. The snow down low was awful, really sad. Feels like June! We were being super conservative with regards to avalanches so weren't sure how far we would actually go on the tour. In the end it was safe enough to get all the way onto the glacier of Stella. Unfortunately we were short on time (having to rush back in time to skin back up to the lifts to catch the 4pm cablecar down from Groppera, because there's not enough snow to ski out via Fraciscio). So we got about 1/2-2/3 the way up the glacier towards the summit and had to turn around. Got to ski down on powder for the whole upper part before reaching the slush below. Great day!

Went skiing at Madesimo da sola for a few hours but wasn't really in the mood so probably shouldn't have bothered! felt kind of obliged to use the free few hours from work...but I think I need a rest...

Early-ish start this morning with Jeff, Serena the 2 Davide's and Eduardo, to skin up to the Cecchini bivi and ski back down. Great weather at Chiavenna but all covered and snowing at Montespluga. Temperatures roughly at zero, but varying winds, at times strong and biting gusts. The snow has had a rough time, and today was mostly icy absolutely awful so half of the way up Jeff and I turned around. The descent from there wasn't as hard as I had feared in the end thankfully. Thanks to the new skis I reckon... Good few hours of exercise before lunch anyway...

Tour with Jeff and Serena. Overcast day at Julierpass, until we had nearly finished the tour and the sun came out and visibility suddenly improved from shit to fantastic! Bad snow unfortunately, crusty and up top icy. We made our way up to nearly the top of Piz Surgonda, skipping only the last bit of traversing from the top of the crest to the summit because the snow was icy and sketchy to traverse. The descent was hard, for me mainly because of the overcast light making it hard to see the snow features well. At the very end of the tour the snow softened up to nearly water and we did a couple of laps cause it was at least a little more fun to ski. With better snow this is a great tour to be repeated!!