Mate, who is a guide was round last night with the family for dinner and we were talking about ski tour options for today as weather was looking promising, so he suggested a route that he saw when he drove over from La Grave and thought it was looking good for snow, departing just by one of the tunnels down from Lautaret.
I got going by 07:45 and by 08:15 as I parked up there were already loads of cars (locals are all on holiday here), at the Rif Blanc tunnel and I could see a fair number of people going up.
I did take my ski crampons out of the garage and put them in the van, but made a wrong decision of not taking them as it turned out the snow was very icy. That meant I had to take a steeper line than most, which meant I was passing quite a few groups going up all who had crampons, so lesson learnt for this time of year!
Loads of avalanches from last week everywhere, some on slopes less than 20% !
Descent was superb in classic sugar spring snow, great finding the right aspect to ensure best possible spring snow, then traversing out if it started to get too soft to find another line.
Going up I passed this couple who lived in Nevache and he had an enthusiastic Collie on a lead, later I heard this shout to turn round to see that the Collie had obviously pulled him over!
On the descent the Collie went ballistic, you can see it in the video and hear the sound of his paws on the sugar spring snow!
I had just about made it to the bottom when I heard these shouts, turned out it was my mate Per and his wife Josefine going up, he shouted at me to put my skins on and join them, but I had sort of bolloxed myself on the ascent, had a blister and I'd left Pooch (my dog) in the van that would be rapidly turning into an oven if I went back up!
He rang later saying how good the descent was, and as they were a lot later, they took a different line down to what I did, taking the more W'ly facing slopes (which is affected by the sun later) having traversed under the Pointe, whilst I pretty well followed the blue dashed line which is the main randonee route up.
Forecast is now for rain in the resort here in Serre and snow at altitude, but probably rain all the way up here. So plan is to ski with Josefine in La Grave on Monday as she finishes in the guide bureau at 10:30.
Mind you when in the Mountains how to make God laugh, make a plan!
FAQ
Poster: A snowHead
