 Poster: A snowHead
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Bit of background, OH and I joined the Club mainly for insurance purposes as the CAF offer a very good policy for married couples if out for a long period, and ticks many of the off piste boxes.
Plus I did think would be a good way to meet other like minded locals knowing that they have organised ski tours.
Anyway for one reason or another (mainly friends coming out and many a powder day, plus OH was not too sure of the standard involved) never got round to signing up for a tour. They do a mid week tour on a Thursday and you sign up on the Wednesday.
So went down last evening and signed up when I saw what the plan was. Têtes de Sainte Marguerite
I met them at Monetier at 07:30 as they turned up in the Club van and a few other cars.
Around 12 people, and average age was probably 55. Couple of youngish ones at 35 - 40'ish.
Most skis were around 80 wide and light, and so were the bindings, all Dynafit or versions thereof, and all had light touring boots, no Freeride touring boots a la Factors etc, one guy even had the carbon light Dynafit boot!
The "leader" did do a transceiver check at the start and that was about it from a safety perspective.
The first 200m was quite gnarly up through what's left of the snow in the trees, with many opting to take their own route, so quickly everyone was spread out. After an hour had a short break with all the "group" coming back together.
What was obvious was that there were about five guys all probably in their 60's who were pushing the pace, not too sure if they were trying to break the Brit, though think they were trying to break each other, though had one guy with me who was one of the youngsters.
After another stop it was the final push to the top, with the various guys all taking different directions, the guy I followed ended up going into soft snow and then the snow was running out so numerous kick turns to weave through the rocks, in the end I took my skis off and boot packed it for a while.
Think I was around fourth or fifth at the summit, we then had to wait a fair while for the rest of the group to arrive, but more than enough time for a picnic and chillin out as we went up at a fair pace.
And then the bit I was looking forward to, the descent, all I'll say that they may have been making comments about my skis being wide at 98, and one other guy had 90's but the token Brit put on a good show 
And as it got softer towards the bottom the wider skis had a distinct advantage, along with the Freeride boots.
We ended up coming in on the Montagnolle run out not far from the start of it, and as I did that yesterday I advised them of the various debris that had fallen down both snow and rocks and set off as I didn't want to be caught up in a group going down there in the middle of them.
So all in all good experience and some of those old dudes are VERY FIT and another new ski tour route logged.
Think it was good call from the OH not to come as it was quite gnarly and technical at times.
The actual climb was just under 1,200m and took around 3hrs inc stops - total time was around 4:20
Strava Route http://www.strava.com/activities/128726827 av hr was 148 for 2hr 36m of moving time so was quite a work out!
Hate to think what the weekend warriors get up to at the weekend, think I'll stick with the mid week retired old farts club
My French is still pretty basic so I'm alright if I hold the conversation, but if it starts going off tangent then I quickly get lost, but a few made an effort, though certainly picked a vibe up from a couple of others as to what is a Brit doing here, but it's amazing how a few photos taken of said people and showing them afterwards quickly breaks down barriers
Some pics
Looking over towards Montagnolle route (right of picture) and pistes of Monetier
The moraines on the Pres les Fonts that you can see from Monetier
Lovely spring snow
The Club shredding 
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