Les 2 Alpes - Winter 2007/8

It was a super day today. sunny, chilly inthe morning but warming up later, powder to about bott/knee height ...... well, what else is there to say. To be fair you could still feel the harder snow underneath on the Grand pente, but that was because the powder was so light. colin B and his daughter skied twice in top of Thuit and then the GP when they'd never done anything like that before - WELL DONE. Nursery slopes were very soggy though by 15.00. They were fine at 13.00 though - just very warm. Actually it's still light and warm outside but I've drawn the curtains because it ought to be dark and cold!!

Pic looking up at Grand Pente - notice how much more snow there is than the pix a couple of pages ago.

AlTom, Let me know when you've made your arrangements.

today started off really horrid, with totally flat light and very high winds at the top of the Toura. It couldn't have been more different to yesterday if it tried. However, having beaten a hasty retreat from Toura we set off down Gours to get the shelter, and hey presto the sun came out. It's stayed out all day although the wind has been fierce at times. Worked out OK int he end. We went up the Fee lift and skied a mix of Fee and Aymes. The snow was good except for that nasty little traverse bit on the Fee where it was quite hard. Cretes was fine late morning both big and little, and the Valentin was also fine ( ) when I skied down at about 13.00. However ........... the slopes down inthe town were really slushy with very heavy, wet slush - the sort that's difficult to skie without a bit of speed. Although it didn't seem all that warm with the wind, my themometer chez moi says 20 degs at 18.00 ... The temps are obviously having an effect on the lower slopes. Having said that, there's plenty of snow on them, and the cannons have still been working whenever possible.

Here's a pic from the foot of the Grand Viking looking up towards the Sapins and the filet between it and l'Y. The dark bits higher up are trees BTW!

AlTom, I heard about a very exciting descent called Muretouse yesterday, involves extreme, roping and all sorts, but almost never skied. If you like the sound of it you'll have to get Boris to take you.

Nice day today, but I only had one lesson. Snow on Cretes and combe du Thuit good. Big Cretes excellent, but small a bit harder. Valentin OK at 13.30 on my way home. Pic of pretty view!

Never mind the pic I took yesterday.... this is this morning looking down the valley. Of course down on the grass etc it will all be gone by mid-morning, but will hang around a bit more higher up.

Llew, Nice pix - I take it you enjoyed the Grotte de Glace?

It snowed all day. Viz was mostly very poor, but with occasional intervals of about 30 secs. during one of these I snapped today's pic. there was just buckets of snow, but below the Cretes it looked very heavy and claggy. Top of the Thuit was OK though, and as there wasn't much wind, hopefully it will be good higher up. Due to the viz I never went higher than 2,400m today. the nursery slopes were in much better condition late in the afternoon than they have been of late, which is good. there was a bit of slush, but it was surface rather than the foot of heavy wet muck from yesterday (complete with puddles).

It seemed as though most peeps were being very circumspect about the off piste (as they should) today, and there weren't lots of tracks everywhere, but there had been some big avalanches on the south wall of the Thuit. I presume these were detonated rather than natural, but still with a great deal of snow.

Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow .....

This is getting ridiculous!