Serre Chevalier- France 2015-2016

A snowHead

Was reading that the gendarmes were again stopping tourist traffic from using the new road yesterday - more here http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=120415&start=160

As for today, little hike to hopefully find some windblown stashes.

Wind in the valley has eased, suspect maybe a little more above 2,300.

Forecasts as ever keep changing for the weekend onwards into next week, really hard not to ignore them, but.......................

A snowHead

@backhojo, thanks for the info. I've booked the tunnel pass as you recommended wink

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Did the "little hike" today Shocked

great views down over La Grave though, excellent spring/mixed powder snow and I'm sure Weathercam will post a report later.
Interesting couple of conversations in the bar at lunchtime.....
1: Local guide giving me VERY funny looks, apparently Weathercam told him yesterday that he would be skiing the tour today with his wife (who didn't come today), the guide was then unsure of Weathercam's sexuality Very Happy

2: Met an Irish group who incidentally knew Kevin Byrne, their son thought telemarking was a kind of advertising campaign Laughing

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Here you go La Crête de Côte Plaine et le Vallon de Roche Noire

Think it's fair to say we encountered (though necessarily did not ski it, where possible), every type of snow pack.

And was so much better than expected, that's why the OH did not want to come having been up at the Lautaret yesterday!

Track log here

I'll post the pictures of La Grave which are pretty damn good in the La Grave thread!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Good day out yet again!

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Enjoyed a full day skiing at PSV today. Snow holding out due to most slopes being north facing and also sheltered from the wind. About 80-90% of resort is open. Blue sky and sunshine all day until about 3pm then it went shady due to the orientation of the slopes (which is why they are in good shape and no slush anywhere). Recommended as a day trip. Took us 40 mins to drive there. Parking free and if you go all the way to the ski fond parking at the top of station 1800 you can get within 25m of the piste. One or two rocks under the piste and OH clattered one she couldn't see...ski now has a 2 inch gash down to the core...currently being repaired at the shop over the road from the chalet !

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After all it is free

@backhojo, Which way did you drive ?

Just back from walking the dogs and taking skis in for a repair / service / new bindings Cool

And can report that "hordes" of well to do Frenchies arriving in their Porsche 4x4s (ok only seen two) and less well to do are now arriving and it's getting to feel distinctly "busy" compared to the last three to four weeks, with queue's just to get some bread!

I'm amazed how many arrived early, there again coming up from the South it's only 3.5hrs.

And @KenX, those Brits on their first ski tour yesterday staying in LG, one of them is the brother of a very good friend of my daughters. He put two and two together after I gave him my email address for the photos I took of them on the summit (came out really well considering how far away they were) as he along with his brother are FB friends with my daughters and sussed the surname, plus not too many gnarly old gits that ski tour with my surname living in Serre rolling eyes

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@Weathercam, a lot of the southern lot will have arrived last night if they have their own accommodation. Fingers crossed for the snow.

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@Ken
Did you get any names from that irish group? O'Brien? Torrans?
Hope all the forecast snow finally arrives. Needed it seems.

snow reports

@Kevin Byrne, Bob or Billy or maybe even Barry Smile

There with his wife and son staying in Venosc.
Heard him talking about there only being four Irish mountain guides which prompted me to ask him if he was involved in Irish mountaineering club and if he knew you

Thanks Gavin
That will have been Harry O'Brien. Retired, he has a place in Venosc. Good climber. His son too is useful on the rock.

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Went off to Risoul today. Long drive but worth it.slopes in fantastic condition. Stupidly busy in the town due to everyone arriving but slopes were not too crowded. Had a slight mishap and pulled the ligaments in my knees. Managed to carry on skiing but can't walk very well ! I was stood still when it happened, bent down to pick up my pole, slid slightly backwards and went over my sons ski as I didn't realise he was behind me...proceed to do the splits and end up on my back bottom with my skis crossed and in the air...absolute agony until the OH released my ski. Oh well...at least we go home tomorrow...just got to manage the long drive !

A snowHead

@backhojo, Goods luck on the drive home. Hope the week was a success...mileage etc. Maybe worth a return visit sometime?

A snowHead

@Kevin Byrne, hope he left early as snowing quite hard now.

Started around 06:00 the eased off for a while now coming down not too bad behind a stiff breeze blowing up the valley.

Should make for some carnage, with people driving to the lifts on summer tyres etc

Game plan is to go up and take a look around lunchtime from Pontillas as it's Club Med transfer day and hopefully not too busy in the Frejus sector.

Then take one day at a time depending on conditions.

Couple of people I know from the CAF Briancon skinned up Ponte Etendard from Les Boussardes and had a stunning ski - tis a fecking steep couloir 40degrees and takes around 40 odd kick turns, last time and only time I skied it I did my ACL on the flat run out afterwards rolling eyes

I'd already talked myself out of joining them as I saw a slide up there when I cycled up on Tues, plus knee was twinging after Friday, any more excuses Puzzled

As I'm typing this snow is coming and going, not massive flocons by any means.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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@Weathercam, bummer. I'm keeping my eye on that bird table.

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@Hells Bells, It's looking good Very Happy

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Aaaaaaahhh the beauty of Serre - bet there are not too many stations in the French Alps where you can have all this to yourselves early afternoon Cool

This is actually an old piste that is no longer used after they took an old lift out many years ago, it's on my old maps, the lift that is, as Teleski du Mai Par in the Frejus sector. And the beauty is that it's actually quite hard to find.

But tomorrow it will be tracked out as today there are not that many groups & ski school groups out being a Sunday.

In fact was pretty empty, as I know the owner of the Frejus hotel I can park there right by the telecabine and there was hardly anyone using that (was 12:30) and then not at all busy on the Frejus drags (will be a different story tomorrow), so we just did our usual laps of skiing the trees off the Cretes drag as we went higher and viz was pretty foul and the OH does not do whiteouts!

As for snow coming down pretty well now, still reckon we've only had around 15cm max in the valley (as it's quite warm so compacting quickly) so far today, but enough to cause a few incidents that I saw in the short drive to the lift, plus thought I was going to have to put chains on to get up my little hill but just made it.

Now got to go out and clear sat dish of snow!

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Clearing the driveway ready for an early start tomorrow!

After all it is free

Nice walk earlier:

@KenX, see my post in the Snowmagaddon thread rolling eyes

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@Weathercam, Laughing

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Looking so much better than both my visits to the area this season, doing a Hulk impersonation looking at the webcams. Have fun Monday chaps!

snow reports

Well arranged to meet @KenX, and get the 08:30 Casse du Boeuf lift, only trouble was that they were still blasting so the lift didn't open till just after 09:00 and then the holiday hordes arrived!

But no panic as we were quite near the front of the queue, and a damn good morning was had with three laps of variations of the Rocher de l'Enfer off the Cote Chevalier chair, and the only tracks we cam across were those that we had made in the previous laps.

Then they opened Clot Gauthier and we did one run down the face.

Then maybe another Enfer run before going back up Gauthier as they opened Eychauda drag for the first time this year, was a bit of a queue at both the Gauthier chair and the Eychauda drag but once up on the ridge there was no one else and we could choose our line down L'Isolée.

After that on to the Vallons and opted for a traverse below Cucumelle but powder was fast turning to sludge, but once in the trees snow was a lot better, and took a line that I'd walked in the summer when exploring and the trees were superb dropping down well below Frejus.

So not a bad morning considering it was a bluebird morning and first day of the holidays.

Oh and I should also add that I reckon @KenX put the feckin magnet back in my pack as I had one almighty collision with a Cock Frenchie skier (only one pole, probably dropped the other off the chair) which netted me a bit of a bloody nose, luckily that was all but I was able to drop my shoulder as I saw him hurtling towards me.

So a fair few pics.

Hordes waiting for the lift to open!

Down Gauthier

Down L'Isolée

Away from the hordes

Then back in the trees

Hello...I am currently sat in the M25 car park....welcome to Britain . Just driven all the way up France with no hassle and now sat queuing to get through dart ford tunnel having driven up a poor excuse for a road surface called the M20. Makes me realise how easy it is to drive in France....except when it's snowing and people try and get from briancon to Montgenevre without suitable equipment. To be honest it wasn't too bad but there were a number of vehicles stuck. We did it without chains...we have an Audi A6 Allroad with winter tyres and it was fine. Only,lost traction once for a second and the Quattro system sorted it. Felt totally safe and a lot easier than messing about with the chains. Drive down to Italy was a nightmare as got stuck behind the snow plow all the way to the motorway at sauze...15mph all the way. Was snowing pretty hard in Montgenevre but the visibility looked better than serre. Italy also had some much needed snow . We didn't leave until 3pm a did a bit of shopping then went to the thermal baths in le monetier...unsurprisingly this was busy due to the weather but not unbearable . Snow in le monetier was pretty thick when we came out of baths..but the car coped fine on the winter tyres. Got to our overnight stay near Dijon around 11pm...not ideal as was aiming for 9pm . Channel tunnel at 3pm today then just got 200 mile drive back up to Lincoln now...if we ever get under the Thames ....grrrr I hate driving in the UK ! Disappointed to miss the snow but happy we had blue sky days for most of our week.

You know it makes sense.

Turns out the QE2 bridge is closed due to high winds...to be honest it is pretty windy..was really bad in Calais. So they have reversed the flow of traffic in one of the dartboard tunnel bores so it's down to two lanes each way stead of 4. Just goes to show what would have happened if they hadn't built the qe2 bridge !

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Just found on Strava the hike I did in the summer where I sussed the trees out above and below Frejus (pics above) we did today - and I even called the hike "Off piste recce La Croix du Téa & vallons de la Tête du Grand Pré"
https://www.strava.com/activities/357275994

And again reading some of the threads from the Northern Alps seems like we missed the wind that closed much of the resort (Meribel in particular) down this afternoon!

A snowHead

@backhojo, Glad you enjoyed your stay here Very Happy

A snowHead

@Weathercam, Another shitty day in the Serre Che paradise, thanks for the route-finding, the big open line through the trees was great Very Happy

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@backhojo Glad you have an A6 Allroad, how would you have coped without a £50,000 car? Good for you.

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@joshuaharrison, Laughing

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Loada of tits on the bird feeder this morning @Weathercam,

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@Hells Bells, actually mainly sparrows this morning - but very active they are, must know there's a major snow fall* coming Cool

Don't think you can see it but very very light snow now - need a magnifying glass to see the flakes rolling eyes

Check out http://www.radareu.cz/ for what is hopefully coming our way laters.

*probably just as accurate as looking at the forecasts Laughing

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All that's happened here so far is that the sparrows are getting fatter - pretty depressing day all round, especially after yesterday.

Might be a few flocons floating around up top but now too warm in the valley for it to snow.

After all it is free

@KenX, I was only just saying to OH wonder where they go as I can't even hear them ??

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@KenX, @Weathercam, Very Happy

Help!!

Serre Chevalier- France 2015-2016

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