We had a new guide today, Anders. we all set off to Serre Chevalier to the first satellite village Monetteiere, (I know I've spelt it wrong), Anders had heard rumours, from other local French guides, that there was still good off piste to be had, even though Serre has had a really bad start to the season.
Things looked quite ominous with the pistes even high up, pretty patchy, with a lot of rocks coming through, we went over the back and into some bowls we did last year from the top, and yes, we found enough untracked to warrant two more runs before lunch and video, quite amazing snow. The run goes all the way back to the village from a height of 3000m to around 1250 . The last bit is extremley technical on a snow board, and it was poles out, for pushing as well as emergency stops, you have to be really aware of rocks & tree stumps coming through, the path is only about 10 foot across, with a drop down to a stream on one side, and too steep to go straight, so very tight turns are a must with ice and stones to blur your line, damn tough on all accounts!!
After lunch we travelled further across the mountain, and commenced a very long steep hike up a ridge, that lasted about 20 minutes, again the telescopic poles came into their own, as we were hiking across thin windblown snow on a loose shale base, that would slide away, with steep drops either side, not for the faint hearted. Once at the top, we had to walk down, which was pretty difficult, then put the board on whilst leaning into the slope to avoid slipping down, again the clickers performed well for this type of operation, the thought of using straps on that would be asking for serious problems.
Once we traversed around another ridge expecting to see the steep bowls, we were instructed by Anders not to follow, the whole thing was rock strewn, so we had to turn around, traverse out across quite an unstable slope, and then hike back to the piste, not one of the great runs, but some good experience in quite awkward conditions.
So it was back down to the lifts to take the runs we did in the morning, and it started to snow, then whilst on the chairs the weather closed in, with heavy snow falling, who cares, the light was really flat so it was a case of attempting to be really light & flexible to absorb any unforeseen bumps, it was still a good run, with the path still being a real bastard for me as I was getting tired, and by boots were hurting like mad!
So, it was snowing, and as we drove back to La Grave, it became apparent this was not a light snow shower, in fact more snow had fallen over the the La Grave side of the Col de Lauteret, and cars coming up were having to put chains on. Once in La Grave, took the board in do have the gouges and base done, and was it ever snowing. In fact to get back to the Lodge which is at 1800m we had to put chains on as the snow tires were not gripping.
So it's still snowing, if it carries on at the present rate over night, we're looking at a good metre!!
Chain Time!
Snow Plough on the way back down!