Wednesday 16 February 2011

You couldn't make it up

Having put a blog post on saying that there was no snow it came as a bit of a blow to morale to go up the Grand Montets with Richie yesterday and have to back off a route due to excessive snow!

We had hoped to do "Farraon" but the lack of a guidebook meant we weren't too sure of where it went, so we decided to switch to the Frendo Ravanel which I'd done recently but was happy to repeat. However, the sprindrift and deep snow soon got out of hand so we went for a coffee instead. It had started out ok but by the time we got towards the first steep section the powder pouring down the route was almost knocking us off. I asked Richie if what we'd just been hit by was sprindrift or an avalanche and with typical Yorkshire understatement, the answer came back "borderline". Either way, it was enough to send us home.

Richie enjoying himself in the snow

Today we hoped that the snow yesterday might have transformed Flegere into a powder paradise, but unfortunately not quite as much had fallen as we'd hoped so it was a couple of runs, a quick coffee and home for us. The weather looks like it might be ok for a couple of days so hopefully I'll get out. Fingers crossed.

Peter and I pondering whether it would be DVDs or climbing wall for the afternoon!