Scotsman Ross Hewitt and his Continental Buddies Are Tearing European Big Mountain Skiing Apart

Ross Hewitt is a Scot from Aberdeen. The 48-year-old recently posted a photo of the Brenva Face of Mount Blanc—with a wild-looking ski descent marked in red. So, I started digging through his website and—wow!—this guy is making wild ski descents all over the French Alps (and Baffin and the South Island of New Zealand).

So, Ross and I did an online Q&A.

Powder: Tell me about growing up. What got you into climbing and skiing?

Hewitt: I grew up in Aberdeen at the height of the Scottish ski scene during the big winters in the mid-80s—passionate skiers, braving winds and humidity that prepared me for Patagonia and New Zealand. My father Major Hewitt and his friends all had military backgrounds (and no, it was another Major Hewitt who had the affair with Princess Diana) took me to the mountains and started my training in bivying and surviving in the harsh Scottish conditions. I can assure you down insulation doesn't work there.

I remember my buddy being snowed in at the Lecht Ski Centre [in the Cairngorms] for a week while we had to go to school. We thought they were out skiing epic conditions every day. Little did we know that 200 people were trapped inside a tiny snack bar the size of 3 picnic tables.

During my teens I was continuing to progress my skiing and influenced by what Scott Schmidt, Glen Plake and Martin Burrows Smith were doing. I remember borrowing my Mum's car to go ski a line on Lochnagar. I didn't know anyone that was into skiing like that, so I used to do a lot solo, relying on my own judgment and ability—this was before mobile phones and these remote highland zones still don't have reception. At university I got into climbing and learned about making anchors, rope management, and avalanche awareness, and the moment I graduated I moved to Chamonix.

Powder: You have skied loads of stuff in the Alps. What are your biggest/hardest descents? Got any notes to share?

Hewitt: Around Chamonix we are spoilt for 1,000-meter-plus snowy faces to ski.

Here are a few notes:

The Poire-Major-Sentinelle link on the Brenva Face of Mont Blanc. First descent June 5, 2024 with Nico Borgeot and Gaspard Buro. I'm very proud to open a highly skiable line though the steepest snowfields from the summit of Mont Blanc on the gnarly and intimidating savage arena of 1,300-meter glaciated Brenva Face. Every time you go to Skyway that thing is staring you in the face.

Arete de Peuterey on Mont Blanc with wing exit from the upper Freney Glacier. Second descent June 2, 2023 with Guillaume Perrel and Jordi Noguere. This is such an elegant line. Skiing at high altitude from Mont Blanc is always tough, with the fatigue of a near midnight start and the climb up carrying a 60-meter rope, cams, nuts, pitons, and a wing. The question and stress of what we will do if we can't fly in the back of your mind because getting down from the Freney Glacier will likely add 8 to 12 hours into the day and take you through insane terrain with high objective hazards.

Tardivel (1993), on Mont Blanc's West Face with new finish, June 13, 2024 with Fay Manners. I'd already skied the Saudan and Benedetti on the West Face and had spotted it was now possible to ski past the lower serac which had forced [Pierre] Tardivel to traverse. It was given a low grade by Tardivel and never repeated, I suspected this was going to give us full value and I wasn't disappointed.

The Sentinelle Rouge on Mont Blanc's Brenva Face, second repeat, May 14, 2024 with Kiwis Will Rowntree and Joe Collinson. Hard route finding through rocks on the upper buttress and a journey through terrain on a massive scale.

Matterhorn East Face, June 2015 with Mikko Heimonen. Significantly easier than the routes above but it would be a shame not to include this iconic mountain!

Aiguille du Plan North Face, 2019 with Mikey Arnold. We skied this sick 55-degree spine feature that had glacial ice showing either side. That year we'd been skiing Mallory in 30 minutes and this run took us all day, and is still some of the steepest, most technical, and most exposed skiing I've done. I repeated the route this year and the hanging glacier had this natural set of ramps and couloirs and was two grades easier!

Powder: Where else do you like to ski?

Hewitt: I love New Zealand's Southern Alps, Mount Cook Range. I've lots of great friends there and feel really at home from home in their wild and rugged landscape. We did a few cool new things there.

South Face of Mount Darwin, Mount Cook Range, 600 meters. The first descent was in 2015 with Tom Grant. [Author's note: Grant did the first descent of the massive Caroline face in 2017 with Italian mountaineer Enrico Mosetti and Briton Ben Briggs.]

Elie de Beaumont Southwest Shoulder, Mount Cook Range, 600 meters. I made the first Descent in 2015 with Tom Grant. Good 45-degree skiing down the shoulder. We did this in a loop from Tasman Hut coming over the divide and skiing onsight.

Sweet Caroline or the Mini-Caroline, Mount Cook Range, 800 meters from the East Ridge. The first Descent was in 2019 with Dave Searle. Great freeride skiing and easy access comparative to the full Caroline Face—this was a consolation prize for me after I blew a back disc just before departing with the team to do the first descent of the Caroline Face a year or two before.

Powder: What's the scariest descent you've ever had?

Hewitt: That's a hard one to answer. I'm not going to the mountains wanting to be scared. That's not to say I don't get pre-match nerves and feel the pressure before big undertakings. You can always choose not to ski and turn back. Once you got a certain experience level, it's not going to be the skiing that’s scary—it can be the other objective hazards such as seracs, cornices, crevasses, black ice painted white, and in the Alps a team skiing on top of you. Once you pass the point of no return and decide you’re going down one way or another, it's generally a matter of time before the heat makes the mountain come alive and the sluffs start, ideally you should be at the bar by then—those battlefield type situations when you are under fire really jack the stress levels up!

Powder: What have you skied this past winter?

Hewitt: We have had an incredible amount of snow above 3000 m in the Alps. It started precipitating in mid-October and never really stopped apart from a short spell of high pressure late January. It was like a winter of old where I used alpine kit more than touring kit, with those big south-facing Skyway days early season then moving to the north facing Midi runs in March.

We barely had a full day of good weather this spring, let alone 2 days, so skiing in the high mountain has been tough and used all my analytical ability to pull off some major descents. Often it was just a 2–3 hour break into the window that allowed a quick lift access run on the Midi north face.

Some notes:

• Skyway freeride / Marbree / Entreves Spur

• Aiguille d'Argentiere normal route at Christmas

• Col du Cristaux solo in deep pow

• Hannibal Couloir, Mt Velan

• Aiguille d'Amone NE face

• Aiguille du Tacul NW shoulder twice

• Aiguille du Tacul North Face - first time for me

• Point Yield 3 times

• Noire Northwest Face

• Noire North Couloir twice

• Rond and Cosmiques multiple times

• Dent de Geant South Face

• Aiguille de Bionassay NW Face from below the summit du to ice

• Tournier entrance to Col du Plan (Midi North Face) 6 times

• Col du Plan once (Midi North Face)

• Contamine Negri twice

• Mallory 3 times (Midi North Face)

• Aiguille du Plan North Face with wing exit

• Sentinelle Rouge Spur on Brenva face of Mont Blanc. 2nd repeat

• Poire–Major–Sentinelle Rouge link on Brenva face of Mont Blanc. First descent. To open a highly skiable plum line like this was a dream come true.

• Tardivel on Mont Blanc West Face. First repeat since Tardivel's descent in 1993. He graded it low, so we went expecting the worst and it was pretty challenging in spring snow with the aspect changes. We skied a logical fall line variation that the serac blocked 31 years ago.

Powder: How many times have you been to Baffin? It looks like lots. What are you most proud of there?

Hewitt: Baffin is such an incredibly beautiful, wild, remote and savage place. I did two trips to Baffin that were really different. During the first we had high pressure for 6 weeks and continually endured that maritime polar cold while we travelled to Scott Island, Gibbs Fiord, Stewart Valley, Walker Arm, and Sam Ford Fjord, pulling sleds and kiting when possible. We skied something like 13 new lines and repeated all of the Andrew McLean / Brad Barlage classics.

Neither paper or Google maps had the resolution back then to identify objectives. You just had to start skinning and see what you found. One morning we headed up Gibbs Fiord pulling a sled with food, stove, down pants, ready for a 24-hour type mission. Eventually we found this beautiful line that seemed to dead-end part way up this massive tower. We started boot packing and the walls crept in on us, twist followed turn, and unbelievably we popped out on the plateau in the early hours of the morning (24-hour daylight). As we skied, we kept putting more layers on, as the fiords act like a massive chest freezer creating temperature inversions. We called it Stairway to Heaven. By the time I got out the freezer I had lost 20 pounds of muscle.

On the second trip we based ourselves deep in Gibbs Fiord to explore the potential there. It kept snowing throughout meaning great skiing but very hard work getting up lines in waist deep powder. I did a solo mission to this line sandwiched between 3 Patagonian style spires of granite, an entrance couloir leading to a massive snowfield and a col between 2 spires. Wading and mantling on my skis to make upward progress. I remember arriving at the top in the middle of the night, soaking with the exertion and spin drift, stripping of my upper layers and chucked on my down jacket. It was a wild moment being out there enjoying that moment alone and it’s not often you get to enjoy face shots in Baffin!

Powder: Family? Wife? Children?

Hewitt: I live in Chamonix with my wonderful partner Juju and we have an amazing daughter who is 14 months old. Juju's great grandfather was the renowned cartographer Paul Helbronner that Point Helbronner at Skyway is named after.

Powder: Thanks, Ross!