If ski touring can be better than this - Then show me what it looks like...

Mighty Grand Combin seen from Tour Bavon.

 

It snowed the day before John Young and I were due to meet for our six days ski touring together.  But there after the weather forecast for the next 4 days was perfect.

So on our first day together it was nescessary to let the newly fallen snow settle down and for the avalanche risk to go down before we headed off on any steep terrain.  We therefore opted to head to Combloux and climb the Petit Croisse Baulet.

John on the summit with Mt Blanc peaking through the cloud

Once on the summit we had to decide which way to ski down inorder to find the best snow and most interesting descent.  We choose to head in the direction of Geittaz.  This proved to be a good choice as we found great untracked snow and we had the place to ourselves.  Yet there was a price to pay because the snow did run out leaving us with a 20 minute walk through some very gooey mud.

It was good while it lasted

20 miunutes walk

Followed by a tricky river crossing which I should have in hindsight walked across sans ski and only just made it without a comedy moment.

This could end badly

John having watched, on much bemused, elected to walk ...

The drop into the stream is further than it looks!

On the Tuesday we headed to Liddes.  This is about an hours drive from Chamonix in the village just before the Gd St Bernard tunnel.  The ski tour was absoultly sensational .  We had fresh snow and once we left the "lift System" [Liddes has one chair and two drags], we saw no one - yet had perfect blue skies.

We arrived on the summit of the Tour Bavon where we had a picnic before skiing down the vast comb before rejoining the track which eventually lead us back to the car.

 

The day wouldn't have been complete without stopping at the Fondue Vending machine which is conviently situated on the main road in Liddes. [Best Fondue cheeses I have ever eaten]

 On the Wednesday we skied off the back of Le Brevent, despite it being a 100% busier than the two previous days we still found some untracked cold snow which was excellent. 

 This was a sort of reverse ski tour, because we did most of the skiing first and then skinned back upto Lac Cornu then upto the Col de la Gliere, before skiing down the Combe de la Gliere into the Flegere lift system.  

traversing Lac Cornu

On the Thursday we headed for Les Contamines, where, because we had had 3 days of solid sunshine, combined with cold clear nights - we hoped to find some good spring snow.  We were not dissapointed and were rewarded with some huge long descents on perfect spring snow.

Me on spring snow with Mt Blanc in the background.

By Friday the weather was begining to turn- with the dreaded Foehn threatening to appear.  We decided to stay local and ski off the back of Le Tour.  This proved to be very good, with the added bonus that we had the place to ourselves.

John skiing off the summit of the Tete de Balme with the Foehn weather obscuring Mt Blanc.

Saturday the forecast was for poor weather , so again we decided to stay local and find some tree skiing which was relatively high.  We headed to Les Grands Montets.  Not for the first time this month the weatther forecast was completely wrong -in our favour.  The skiing off -piste was poor so we contented our selves by skiing on piste and then heading for lunch at the always excellent Cremerie d'Argentire - probably my favourite place to eat while skiing at Les Grands Montets.

The many many people heading off on the Haute Route