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Trip report - Maurienne, Jan 2005

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
A few months ago, snowball kindly invited me to join a group of his friends for an offpiste trip in the Maurienne valley (and/or the Dolomites, but we didn't get there as the snow wasn't that good). I've just returned from this, and may I say thank you snowball. Here are the first highlights of the trip:

The resort(s): marketed as beginner/family areas. Great! There was no-one else offpiste, and I do mean no-one. At one point our group of 7 made up half of all people visible on the slopes in one of the smaller resorts we skied. Here are some photos of the surroundings and the terrain we skied (more terrain below):

NOTE added by Alan Craggs 24/10/05 - with the inception of the snowMedia zone and changes to the skicardiff site the links inserted by Cedric below have become invalid. I did ask for Cedric's permission before closing his gallery Little Angel The 15 pics below can be downloaded as a zip file (460kb) from here. (limited to 31 downloads a month).



1

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The snow: well when we got there, snow had been patchy all across Europe. So we had to go looking for it. Traversing, hiking, etc. Here are some photos of the longer hikes/climbs we did:

4

5

6

We did find snow, after all - here are our tracks in a bowl that had been skied by four other people in the past three weeks:

7

The group: I suspected that these guys would be good but didn't quite realise how good. And fit. I was 10 years younger than the youngest of them, called myself a good aggressive skier, and I turned out to be average in skiing abilities and fitness (the oldest of the group, who has 25 years on me, was the fittest. We still haven't found where his twin was and how they managed to swap at lunchtime).

Here they are:
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13 this one's of me

14 - me again, less impressive (by the way, this was before it snowed, that is after three weeks of no snow)

15- Zeb, our guide, in one of the rare moments we were in front of him.

Injuries: none, although I did my best to break a tree in two with my right knee, and tied with John for the best fall of the week (no photos I'm afraid).

Equipment destroyed: Andrew thinks he decambered one of his rental skis. I had three services for my bases despite using my own skis only for the first five days. Our minibus driver wrecked the guide's skibox (does that count?).

Apres-ski: quiet, but we were too knackered anyway. Useful world-problem-solving discussions over the dinner table, though, especially after the second bottle of Gamay.

Overall marks: an easy 10/10, despite my grumblings about having to climb so much. (I can confirm beyond any doubt that running for the commuter train in London is not sufficient training for a serious week offpiste).

If anyone's interested, I can post more pics, especially once I manage to capture frames from the videos we were taking.[/url]
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Looked great, though you seem to be walking uphill with ski gear. How bizarre, I have Ms hyweljenkins for that, though keep that quiet - I'm promoting her later this week, you see.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Yes looks great, great shots, were exactly were you skiing ?
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 You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
gorgeous... nice pics
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Val Cenis was the main resort, but we moved around in the valley
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 You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
Nice summary, though I'm afraid the avalanche risk after the snow finally came restricted us to the trees and a few low gulleys and prevented most of the open, steep skiing which might have been a highlight (except the entry to the bowl in your 7th photo we had already skied - perhaps you could add that) and we never got to Valfrejus, which is too open.
In the climbing photos you should understand we climbed right up to the ridges you can see ahead! (That last climb was the moment the snow started to fall. The faint blur at the bottom of the third of those photos is me, I am told)

I hope the Dolomites option works NEXT year.

Of course Cedric is downplaying his own skiing skill. Once he hired some softer, broader skis - his skis stopped diving. But of course this doesn't help with snow-covered tree trunks and roots, which we met frequently!

Many thanks, Cedric for all your photography (and your company).
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