Chris enjoyed himself. I was just surviving a hangover 🤢
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
So yesterday was our last slack country of the season as the lifts* we rely on are now closed
We take a lift up and then climb up from that, then drop off the back where it always just seem to be us and our tracks.
Yesterday's descent was West facing so no rush and we started our descent at 14:00 scoring superb spring corn.
As we skinned back up so there was a lot of evidence of slides and was a tad disconcerting but did seem most of the danger had already gone!
We arrived at the lift and said our end of season farewells to the lady liftie who always admires what we do and then had a major slush fest of a ski back down into resort before finally getting the gondola back down.
Without the lifts we still have a few roads (Lautaret / Galibier) that will take us near to the ever receding snow line and we're now waiting for another road to open up or else it's a long 6km walk to where we have to put the skis on.
It's now that you really appreciate how bad the snow cover is lower down, I reckon we're at least three weeks down on previous seasons, and the last couple have not exactly been good!
Ironically forecast has very cold temps this week though no precipitation and also windy so not ideal for cycling.
*resort is open to the weekend but lifts that are open off the back is S facing and no snow
lady liftie who always admires what we do and then had a major slush fest of a ski back down into resort before finally getting the gondola back down.
Oui, c'est tout à fait vrai. Toutes les femmes de la région sont admirées. Certains jeunes hommes s'habillent comme lui et essaient de copier son style.
Dans les bars, nous ne parlons plus rien.
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
@jcpoisson=Cock, I used the the word "we" as she's actually more impressed with my OH
And she has been known to come out and watch the antics of a fellow SnowHead with binnoculars as they make their way across to the lift
After all it is free
After all it is free
Sharkymark wrote:
[b]BobinCH[\b] in reply to your OP, yes it certainly is! This is last week in South Wales. Powder all the way to the sea. Unbelievable.
Joking aside it looks like you found some good stuff...a month ago it was high summer in the Vanoise!
Liar. There's no way that was South Wales.
Its clearly the Downs.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Introduced two very good skiers to ski touring today, usually looking at the weather at 07:00 I would have gone back to bed, but they were so keen to go, not helped by one of them going back to the UK on Thursday and weather tomorrow rain & snow.
Had tooled them up with all the kit yesterday, and so lucky that my spare boots fitted him well and my OH's old boots the same, and then skis / skins / crampons were obviously not an issue either.
I was slightly optimistic about the conditions as there did seem to be blue sky overhead the lower cloud base, only issue was not much of a freeze overnight.
He's been skiing since he was 13 also having worked in a ski shop since then and working on a local dry slope and being trained up by some top UK race instructor (sorry forget names and locations) whilst his OH was American from Minnesota and has done numerous seasons in USA and Europe.
Took them up from the Lautaret up to the Galibier road where they were well into clearing the road - and what was bizarre was that there was a whole section that had not been touched, and yet further on a good couple of km had been chiseled out by some machine but no obvious signs of tracks as to how it got there, unless it had come down from the Galibier, very strange.
Galibier road snow plough at this point it's some 3km from the Lautaret
Even though it was cloudy there were bright spells and it became obvious to veer more towards N facing slopes, I ended up climbing to a ridge line where I'd not been before and that set us up for a great descent, not before a few photos on the ridge over looking La Grave and La Meige / Girosse in cloud, and it started to snow a little too!
It was so great to see them whooping up the descent and loving the whole solitude of being there with no one else bar the marmots (and snow ploughs lower down) and of course Les Rando Chiens.
They're now manically talking about equipment, and he would like my boots!
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