Italy still has the best snow but finally that might be changing.

David Ford joined me for three days for a mixture of off piste skiing and ski touring. This was to be David's introduction to the activity. Monday 9th January. Still no snow in the Haute Savoie this season' so we drove through the Mt Blanc tunnel to start our skiing in in Courmayeur. We started by getting use to the different type of skis and boots plus all the other equipment needed for off piste skiing and touring. We had beautiful weather but the snow was hard and unforgiving. Tuesday 10th January. Snow! It actually started snowing in Chamonix. Still conditions were far from perfect so we headed through the tunnel this time for Punte Crocce. We saw no one all day which was pretty special and the summit was very atmospheric.

Wednesday 11th. Again it snowed in Chamonix and it was starting to look like a ski resort. But it was an allusion. There was still no real snow base for skiing off piste and the new snow was coupled with very strong winds , so once again we headed through the tunnel , this time to La Thuile. we were not disappointed. We found some very good light untracked snow which gave wonderful skiing all day long. Yet the full off piste skiing experience would not have been complete without landing in a river...