Not Perfect , but not bad.

The Applestrudelhorn.

 For the people who primarily come skiing to slide from morning coffee to lunch to Apés ski and then slide back to their hotel and nothing more, then the weather and conditions have been perfect.  Cold and crisp with the temperature never getting above zero [which means the pistes never really  become icy. ] All this along with blue skies for weeks on end has meant lots of contented holiday makers.  

For the people who take their skiing seriously, where the quality of the snow is more important than the colour of the sky , then it has altogether been more challanging.  Over the last two weeks I have travelled far and wide in search of the best conditions.  I even went to Zermatt for the day leaving Chamonix before dawn and returning by moon light

When I was not guiding I was treated to a ski lesson from Andrea my daughter who is a member of the Chamonix ski school.  Say what you like about nepotism but  I would highly recommend her to transform and take your skiing to another level.

I had three very entertaining days with a family who travelled all the way from New York to ski with me. Ayal Kayan his wife Riva and his five grown up  children came to sample the best Chamonix had to offer.  We had a day skiing off piste at Le Tour, Then the "must day" of the Vallee Blanche, which was fantastic.

Dent du Géant

Geant Ice Fall

 It was made even  more interesting when I missed the key exit to the Montenvers cable car [2 years absence and further retreat in the glacier is my excuse], leaving us comitted to skiing all the way to Chamonix.  This proved to be a great mistake because, not only did we get to enjoy a drink at the buvette Mottes , but also allowed us to ski all the way to Chamonix [ the track was in great condition] and everyone got the full and rare oppurtunity to ski all the way to the bar.  On our final day we skied off-piste at Les Grande Montets, which because it had remained cold the snow was good.

Next my good friend Charles Sherwood turned up for what we think is close to our 30th anniversary of contioniuoisly climbing and skiing together .  We started with a day skiing off-piste at Combloux.  The snow wasn't for the faint hearted.  Otherwise known as challenging. Others might just call it crap.

Yet a change of venue and the next day was magnificent.  We went ski touring above Les Contamines  and did the tour of Lac de Girotte which provided good skiing.

Mt Blanc

Looking towards Lac de Roseland

Perfect ski touring scene

We found some good turns

On our final day we headed into the Aiguille Rouge and were lucky enough to have jaw dropping conditions in which to climb upto the Breche Berard where we enjoyed wonderful skiing the entire distance of the Berard vallee .

Chaines des Fiz

Charles on the final bit upto the Breche Berard.

Climbing upto Breche Berard

And then the ski down the valley

The Berard Vallee

Next I had the pleasure of Freddie and Katie Pack, who were delightful company and will go home with a good story to tell, which is only semi ski related. The brief they gave me was that they were keen to get back into ski touring after a bit of a hiatus [ can't think what that might be due to ]   

I suggested we head off and climb the Petit Croisse Baulet high above Sallanches. 

Mt Blanc from the summit of Petit Croisse Baulet

We duly did this, but the weather was threatening to turn and the light was getting flat so instead of continuing on and upto the Grande Croisse Baulet we elected to privlege the skiing and descended down to Giettaz on immaculate snow. After which this gave way to some grass skiing before once again picking up some further good snow once we hit the shade.

We arrived in the tiny resort of Le Plan . We duly took the chair to the top of the resort, where I suggetsed we try one of the world class tree descents Giettaz has to offer.  Well the terrain is always incredible, but on this day the snow didn't quite match [ It was still better than anything in the MT Blanc massif at the time]. Nevertheless the physicality of the descent resulted in Freddie's brand new I phone being ejected out of his pocket without his knowledge.   When we eventaully stopped to gather our breath, the phone was sickening not where it was supposed to be.  That was because it was in the middle of a forest all on its own.

So what to do?  Katie went on the "Find My" App which established that the phone was some where in the forest.  This wonderhul technology is all well and good, but without skins to climb back up the hill , then nothing is going to be found.  Fortunately we all had skins and we were able to follow our tracks back up hill, eventually Freddie got a ping on his I watch which said his phone was in a 25 meter radius.  He was then able to get his phone to ring.  We heard it somewhere above us, but it was still frustratingly invisible.

Then we saw a faint black in the snow and there it was.

Almost found

On Monday 7th it snowed.  So much so the lifts were slow to open because of the high avalanche risk.  I was joined by Tom Roscoe and his snow board.  We started the day with a very good cappuccino outside Les Grand Montets while we waited for news.  No news was forthcoming and so we relocated to Le Tour, where we had some fantastic skiing [ Well I did ] Tom seemingly had a good time on his board too!

The Aiguille Verte seen from Le Tour.