We had another huge dump of snow just over a week ago, and this has been followed by clear skies allowing us to venture further off piste. Last Monday the avalanche risk was high at 4/5 so we decided to play safe and stay in resort. Incredible – we had yet another unexpectedly amazing day in La Rosière with descent after descent in untouched powder. ‘One more run!” was the phrase of the day.
The next day the avalanche risk was down to 3/5 so we headed to Val d’Isere and were delighted to find fresh snow on the Tour de Charvet.
By Wednesday we were keen to start doing some more extended tours. We headed up to Ste Foy and skied one of it’s famous descents, the Col du Granier, easily accessed by traversing from the top of the Marquises lift. We had the whole valley almost exclusively to ourselves and there were still great swathes of untracked powder beckoning us down. Even the notorious ‘iPod’ (icy path of death) at the bottom was soft snow as we made our way through the forest down to La Masure and the bus home.
We’ve decided to become Alpine Experience regulars as their morning guiding often finds secret stashes of powder when Val d’Isère seems skied out. We had a really lovely morning with Chris, the guide, his wife Suzanne and one of their regular clients Jonny Alpine. We headed back out for a more extended Tour du Charvet and then found some lovely descents around Le Fornet and Laisinant. It was great to catch up with Chris and Suzanne as we had spent some lovely days touring with them in spring 2021 when the resort was closed.
So… with the avalanche risk at 2/5 it was time to head out on some tours. One of our favourites is the Tour du Fours, descending from the Col de l’Iseran and then heading over the Col du Fours to give a wonderful descent to the refuge. A ninety minute skin opens up a world that seems a million miles away from the resort. We had fabulous snow and all to ourselves!
As you can guess, we’re getting a little fatigued now but can’t resist another tour whist the weather is so good. We headed up from Tignes to the Col du Palet and descended ‘tout seul’ on the tour around the Aguille Noire. A gentle ascent climbs over the Col de la Grassaz and we were rewarded with beautiful snow and stunning scenery. The photos say it all!
We’ve just had a quiet day doing boring stuff including servicing the car – in itself a bit of a challenge when the garage is 2 miles down the road on icy hairpin bends and we only have one car. Jono valiantly cycled back to the garage finding the trip down the hill ‘pretty chilly’. We’re heading off to spend a few nights in La Daille so that we can ski with Martin and Jeavon who are staying there. Well I say ‘ski’ but really it will be about the partying as Jeavon can’t resist boogieing to a live band!