The Foehn; The word no skier ever want to see in the forecast

Yes the foehn is the word that is like a death sentence to a good skiing forecast. Its effects are well documented but needless to say it can wreck the best laid plans.

This is what happened to me Ian Ansell and Charlie Crossley Cook.

On our 1st day we decided to skin up to the Gd St Bernard Monastery [in beautiful weather] Yet by the next day the dreaded foehn had kicked in. We did manage to climb Mt Fourchon and then ski across and down to La Fouly but the conditions were frankly crap and it was a relief to get the skis off.

So we headed around to La Thuile because it was due to snow in Italy. It did not and we skied around La Thuile firstly finding some half decent snow before the mist socked in and the wind blasted us relentlessly.
The forecast was still for snow which the next day eventually came and we managed to get some excellent skiing the trees in Courmayeur .

Our final day was in Chamonix where we again struggled with the weather and poor snow conditions and contented our selves with skiing the pistes all over Chamonix