Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Drink as Much Ski as Much : The Excess Men.

They don't like change : Over the last 20 years they turn up on the same last weekend in January , stay in the Hotel de la Couronne , drink in the Office bar , dance on tables the in the Savoy Bar ,induce severe hangovers , BUT to their ever lasting credit they are always ready to go skiing or ski touring with me the next morning.

This last Friday and Saturday we had two particularity memorable trips. On the Friday , I shoe-horned them into the car and we drove to Combloux where we climbed the Petit Croisse Baulet. The view from the top was fabulous.



Yet what was particularly special was the descent off the back of the peak all the way down to the village of Le Plan.



Seemingly the day was so good that the "boys" , James, Kevin ,David, Pete, Adam, Matt did what they always do and went out to celebrate until the small hours.

So when I arrived at 8.30 am the next morning they were a little worse for wear. They claimed it was rather like altitude sickness. Again we squeezed into the car [which stank of the previous nights garlic snails] and I drove all the way to Les Contamines.
Despite a reasonable forecast the weather wasn't good. It started to snow heavily and there was thick impenetrable fog , which they claimed created motion sickness [I wonder why?]

I suggested a strategic coffee stop which was eagerly lept upon.


The coffee stop seemed to have a magical effect. They sobered up and the weather cleared up .



We were able to continue with the plan which was to skin up to the Col de La Fenetre and then make the long ski descent all theway to the valley floor and virtually back to the car.





2 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks Mark, as always 2 great days ski touring under your leadership. Sunday was filled with trying to ski 8,800 vertical meters "An Everest", on piste. This was managed with 5 minutes go of lift closure, achieving a final total of 9,200M across 45K. Skiing in great soft piste conditions in Le Tour and Grand Montets. A fantastic end to to a great skiing weekend. See you next year !

SkiTourer said...

Thanks Mark. An excellent piece of prose to complement an excellent weekend of ski touring. You captured the emotion of the garlic filled car equally as well as the fantastic snow conditions and combined your role of Mountain Guide so effectively with that of 'Mother' to see us through a great couple of days of ski touring. Same time, same place next year. Fran