ONE DAY
What number of completely different difficult snow circumstances can the mountain throw at you in at some point together with extra arduous crust than on a day-old French baguette?
9.30 CORDUROY
Early carry as much as rating good corduroy on the pistes. Wind blowing up excessive however clear skies and good vis so up the drag to take a look at the circumstances over the again…
10.15 CRRRRRUST
Gav goes first and his preliminary turns are fairly OK so it is sport on. Then it is thick breaking crust on the actually steep south-facing slope, the one approach to go down. Just a few survival turns and a traverse takes us, lastly, into extra mellow land. However there is a difficult mixture of windblown and sun-affected crust so there isn’t any figuring out what our skis are going to do, slide over, break by or glide within the pow. We each get caught out and wipe out, however maintain snowboarding till…
10.45 POWDER
We lastly make it over to the north facet the place there’s deep chilly powder above the huts (predominant picture) and among the many timber – and in addition some difficult turns round some pillows which, I be taught, should not as tender as their title suggests if you land on them. After a 5k descent we placed on skins and climb up from Les Combes to take the path all the way down to the Prorel mid-station…
12 midday ROCKS AND GRASS
The paths is unpisted however there is a respectable slim rat observe for the primary half, which then quickly runs out of snow so it is a case of doing tight turns avoiding the uncovered rocks/grass and stepping over streams to make it to the mid-station…
12.45 CHALKY PISTES
It is the lunch time lull so not many individuals round and the pistes are in glorious situation permitting for a quick continuous ski all the way down to Les Combes chairlift…
13.00 MOGULS
As Gav suggests we flip off to take the purple Echaillon and, too late, see that it’s unpisted and mighty mogully all the way in which all the way down to the Gaultier chair. Not what my legs wanted…
13.30 SLUSH
And simply as we push the accelerator down for the ultimate run down Le Bez, the snow has gone into full meltdown so it is a thigh-pulling descent on Velcro and a waterski by the deep slush for the final 100m again to the van…
14.00 AND RELAX
However solely after taking the canines for his or her mountain stroll.
In fact, there isn’t any such factor as unhealthy snow solely unhealthy skiers. However some snow circumstances are extra technical to ski than others. For extra on several types of snow and the right way to ski them, verify right here.
