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After about five hours of climbing on the North face of les Courtes by the classic Swiss route we arrived at the entrance of the south couloir.

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The Swiss route is a classic ice climb and graded IV, 3, 800m.

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First pitch. We took the first Grands Montets lift and arrived to the foot of the face at 11.00 o’clock.

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Just after the first steep section. Snow slope about 100-200m before the second steep section.

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Andreas Fransson eating a sandwich after the last crux around 15.30 o’clock. We have about 200m climbing left before arriving to the summit ridge.

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Here’s Andreas about to down climb the first 20m of the couloir.

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The south face has an average angle around 45°-50° degrees.

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The south face of les Courtes was first descended by Pierre Tardivel and Daniel Chauchefoin 4th Mars 1979.

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Andreas Fransson is a very talented skier, one of the best I ever skied with, probably the best!

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Total vertical meters: + 1100m, -2810m

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We did two 60m rappels at the bottom of the couloir. We skied Mer de Glace down to Chamonix via Cabanes des Mottes with head torches. Arrived in Chamonix at 20.30 o’clock!