I wasn’t expected too much this morning. It was murky with flat-light and with very few lifts set to open there wasn’t a lot of options. My original ‘bad weather’ plan was head up the Olympique to ski some piste and then maybe go for a ‘skin’ to get some exercise. The brighter light was on Bellevarde and the Fornet had the worst of the weather so this seemed like a reasonable plan.
But after two-years of preparation the Olympique didn’t open on time. After hanging around for 30 minutes or so Andreas and I decided to join Chris at the Fornet. As luck would have it the cloud cover started to break up and by the time we arrived on the glacier we had clear blue skies. The visibility changed everything. Instead of being stuck on piste we were able to venture out and ‘sniff’ out some great snow in little gullies. With a thin snow cover we needed to be very careful to avoid rocks. When the T-Bar finally sorted itself out we were able to ski some wonderful snow higher up. Eventually we headed out into the Pays Desert and finished an unexpectedly great morning with a little ‘skin’ back out. (see photos)
The ice at the top of the glacier has dropped significantly and the landscape has totally changed. There will be fewer options on the first pitch and with the changes in terrain there will be an increase in possible avalanche activity. The Pays Desert will unfortunately be a trickier place to go without good visibility.
Karen and Andreas are playing at the Danois tonight with the gig kicking off at 6 o’clock. I’m really looking forward to it and hope to see you there.
Stay tuned!
PS It was lovely to see Francoise and Fab again at the Gourmandine this morning.