Luca Pandolfi

Les Courtes NE Cordier – Gabarrou 05.05.2013

luca — Thu, 09 May 2013 10:38:37 +0000

3856 m ; 45°- 50° 800 m, pass 55°; North – North/East ; TD+ ; 5.4/ E4

Les Courtes is a mountain that seemed to be shaped for steep skiing.
From the classic NorthEast slope to the Austrian route it is possible to find all levels of difficulties in steep and extreme skiing.
This line is a combination of the Cordier climbing route in the lower part and the Gabarrou route in the higher part.
It is one of the most aesthetic lines I have ever had the pleasure to ride, with its rare conditions and where it has also been very rarely skied from above the mixed section crux above the hanging field.
I did not find any information about previous snowboard descents of the full line from above the crux.
This is the fifth line I have ridden on this amazing mountain and the first time I have dropped into its north face directly from the top, a special moment, like those turns on the airy ridge and the hanging field.
This was also the first big mountain outing in a while and although I was not feeling at my best I still did it and felt pretty well nevertheless.
The solo super exposed mixed short cut passage that Ben chose on the way up drained me of at least 2 years of life, but in general was a great adventure.
Unfortunately Ross did not feel good on the way up and had to turn back almost at the top of the hanging field.
Ben managed to go through the crux with his skis while we did a couple of short raps and some side slipping.
The snow was perfect, another great day on the mountain with special friends; Tom Grant, Ben Briggs, Ross Hewitt and Mikko Heimonen (ski), myself (snowboard).

Chilling at the top of Grands Montets

4.30 am, ready to go

Cham by night, amazing !

Ross making the first magic turns on the hanging field

Dropping from the top of Les Courtes into the North face it is a pretty special moment…pretty steep and exposed

Those turns on the ridge are pretty special

Mikko Heimonen

Tom Grant

Shredding the hanging field

Tournier spur to Plan 04.05.2013

luca — Sun, 05 May 2013 15:39:04 +0000

3700 m ; 800 m 45°- 50°; North ; TD ; 5.3/ E4
Today was one of those rare days where the snow on the north face was perfect from top to bottom.
I have only had 3 days like this in 8 years.
We wanted to have a quick run on the north face to have the time to catch the last bin up to the top of the Grands Montets to ski something in the Argentiere basin the next day.
A little crowd was standing at the entry of the Mallory so we decided to go a bit further right where it was less busy.
No one had been on the Tournier Spur this year and it was the first time of the season where the entry was looking pretty white. Despite this we were still a bit nervous as we did not know how far the ice was underneath the new snow, especially as it had looked grey just before the last snowfall.
The top was overloaded with snow, Mikko on the rope checked the stability of the snow layer…it was perfect !
Just after the snowy ridge, on the steepest part for about 20 m the ice was covered by only 20 cm of fresh snow while lower down the snow was just perfect, all the way down to exit cone.
With Mikko Merikanto and Ross Ewitt

Ross dropping in

Mikko traversing towards the snowy ridge

Steep and the ice is not far

Mikko

Ross

Col du Plan North Face 13.04.2013

luca — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:40:30 +0000

3475 m ; 600 m 45°- 50° ; North ; TD ; 5.3/ E4

After one month spent shooting, filming, talking, more talking, travelling, more travelling, i could not wait for coming back to “my” mountains and do what i like the most, riding big lines on proper mountains.
The more i travel the more i realize how lucky i am to leave in a place like Chamonix ; i would not change it with any other place.
After have watched few people side stepping the first 100 m of the Mallory route on the north face of the Aiguille du Midi, Tom Grant, Ben Briggs and myself headed towards the Midi-Plan ridge.
We quickly bailed our original plan due to overloaded and slabby slopes.
The weather was not so good, changing fast and the wind was pretty strong.
We did not want to ski down the Grand Enver so the only possible alternative was the north face of Col du Plan direct.
The first pitch was pretty icy forcing us to abseil 65 m (i rode this line in 2009 without rappel).
Lower down the snow was perfect high mountain compact powder, the best u would wish to ski steep lines.
The exit couloir was full of snow like i have never seen it before.
In the end our consolation line turned out to be a great ski, with fantastic snow and far from the crowd.

Ben rappelling the top icy pitch

Tom Grant

Ben Briggs

Faceshots on the Col du Plan

Opening the gas

Cortina – Dolomites 30.02 – 05.03.2013

luca — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 16:39:50 +0000

I spent the next 5 days riding with Forrest Shearer and shooting with the Photographer Dan Milner for a Transworld Snowboarding story.
The conditions this year on the Dolomites are exceptional, we rode pillows lines and Alaska style spines that have never been possible before.
I had very good time with all the crew, Forrest Shearer (Jones team rider), Dan Milner, Ben Gavelda (Transworld Snowboarding), Bl;air Habenicht (Lib Tech) and Eric Brandt (Absinthe Production).

Forrest Shearer opening some pillow lines

Blair Habenicht cab 180

Splitboarding the Misurina backcountry

Forrest Shearer

My first spine of the day

Marcoira Couloir – Cortina – Dolomites 29.02.2013

luca — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 23:49:09 +0000

2360 m ; 600 m 40, sect.50 ; North ; AD + ; 4.3 / E2

One of the best couloir i ever rode in the Dolomites.
From the top Faloria chairlift we did a long traverse to reach the foot of the last 200 m long couloir that leads to a little snowy saddle.
From there with another 100 m traverse we reached the entry of this beatiful couloir.
Snow was awesome !!
In the middle part of the couloir just before the 2 m mandatory rocky step jump, a massive sluff dropped from the slopes above directly on our heads like a massive waterfall, luckily without any bad consequences.
Exiting the river and reaching the road has been another little mission.
With Michele Valle Da Rin.

On the never ending traverse

Powpow turns

Michele Valle Da Rin

Vallencant Couloir – Cristallo 27.02.2013

luca — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 21:07:49 +0000

2690 m ; 150 m 50 ; 650 40 – 45 ; North ; TD ; 5.2 / E2

The next day we decided to try ski the Vallencant couloir, also known as the priest’s couloir.
It took us almost 3 hours to climb the airy ridge in 1 m of snow, digging deep corridors and smashing huge snow mushrooms on the way.
At the first turn in the short couloir just before the last 30 m climb to reach the entry of the couloir I was almost taken away by a slab.
The top 150 m of the couloir was pretty rocky and in hard snow.
In the rest of the couloir the snow was just perfect.
The snow started to get pretty heavy in the afternoon so we decided that we’d had enough for the day and we started a long après ski, where we met the American guys of Transworld Snowboarding mag and Absinthe production.
With Luca Rolli, Christian Leischner, Tazio Isgro Themel and Giacomo Schenardi.

Left to right : Christian Leischner, Tazio Isgro Themel, Paolo Tassi, Pier Smaltini, Michele Valle Da Rin, Dan Milner, Forrest Shearer, Myself, Ben Gavelda, Luca Rolli.

Thanks a lot to the Cortina Tourism Office for the help :
http://cortina.dolomiti.org/

and to the Olympia International camping for the hospitality :
http://www.campingolympiacortina.it/

Cristallo – Dolomites 26.02.2012 Epic !!!

luca — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 19:04:18 +0000

After the King of Dolomites Photo Contest Luca Rolli and myself moved to Cortina to visit some friends, where they are having one of the best seasons ever.
The next day we went up to Cristallo and has been one of those days, with over 60 cm of fresh powpow and noone around…Paradise!!
We did 3 laps, skiing the Staunies North Couloir, n 1 Couloir and n 2 couloir.
With my friends Christian Leischner, Tazio Isgre Themel and Pier Smaltini (in the afternoon).

The lift to Paradise

Staunies nord

Deep !!

Happy people after the 1st run, left to right : Tazio, Christian and Luca

2nd lap, flying down the couloir n 2

3rd lap, Pier joined us and the weather is improving

Top of Cristallo..has been all day long just for us

Thanks a lot to the Cortina Tourism Office for the help :
http://cortina.dolomiti.org/

and to the Olympia camping site for the hospitality :
http://www.campingolympiacortina.it/

SOULRIDER December 2012 Issue n 5

luca — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 16:30:22 +0000

Click here to high quality PDF

KING OF DOLOMITES Photo Contest 23 – 24.02.2013 Day 2

luca — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 22:06:02 +0000

The evening dinner and party put on by the organisers for the first night was pretty good.
The next day was dumping and we decided to go up again to Rosetta and found that we were the only team up there as everyone else decided to shoot in the woods.

It was pretty cool and mystic, a lot of fresh snow and noone around !
Rosetta

Luca Rolli rappelling into the mountain

Guillaume

“King of Dolomites”

With Giuliano Bordoni and Eric Giraldini

For more infos about the contest :
http://www.kingofdolomites.com/#

To see all the pictures :
http://www.kingofdolomites.com/king-of-dolomites-2013-ecco-tutte-le-foto/

To see the winning shots :
http://www.kingofdolomites.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/KOD-2013-WINNERS-BOOK-web.pdf

KING OF DOLOMITES Photo Contest 23 – 24.02.2013 Day 1

luca — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 16:27:13 +0000

Recently, I was invited to compete in the first edition of the “King of Dolomites” photo contest in San Martino di Castrozza. The contest comprised of 11 teams of 2 riders and 1 photographer in the Pros category and several teams in the wannabes category. We all had 2 days to ride in the breath-taking scenery surrounding the nice village of San Martino and shoot a photo that would become the “winners shot”.

I chose to go with Guillaume Le Guillou, one of the most talented photographer’s I ever had the pleasure to shoot with ( http://www.glg-photo.com/V2.5/) and Luca Rolli ( http://www.lucarolli.com/A._Guida_Alpina_Luca_Rolli/Welcome.html ), one of the best extreme skiers on the actual scene.

Whilst attending the contest I was also excited about the possibility of meeting other good riders, photographers and catching up with old friends.

The weather did not help, but differently from the other teams we decided to keep shooting on the Rosetta side, the most “ Dolomites style” area (which we thought that was the purpose of the contest).
We went with the determination to visit a new place, shoot exciting images and basically have fun, all of which we managed to do a lot of!!

Unfortunately, like often happens in life not everyone seemed to have the same fair vibe. The team of Seb Meyer, Carlo Zortea and Jacob Slot, obviously did not know what professionalism, style and fair play meant and tried their best to ruin the nice party vibe. Despite this disappointing and unfair play the first edition of the “King of Dolomites” was a great experience.

I would like to thank the San Martino Tourism Office for their help and hospitality, Daniele Molineris for the 2 amazing shots taken from the bin ( http://www.danielemolineris.it/ ) and all my friends, old and new who I shared these exciting and great moments.

Eric Giraldini, our guide

Luca Rolli

Myself, Photo : Guillaume Le Guillou

At the rapp…with Giuliano Bordoni