On Wednesday I teamed up with Dane, Brian, Dave, Matt and TK (the last 2 being the only ones not cool (sad?) enough to have a blog) for a sociable day up the Midi. We started by shooting across to the Pte Adolphe Rey and then skinned up to the Helbronner and skied the Toula Glacier in excellent spring snow.
Half the team on the Toula.
Back up at the Torino Hut, making the most of the fussball table.
After a couple of coffees at the Torino we shot off down the Vallee Noire in some of the best chalk I've skied all year. The views weren't bad either so the grins were huge!
Big Country.
Me on the chalk of the Vallee Noire. Photo Dane Burns.
With no firm plan for Sunday I figured that the same again wouldn't be a bad option. Not particularly imaginative perhaps, but why change a winning formula? This time I was skiing with Tom, Sophie and Sharon and whilst we expected the snow to be slightly slushier, we still thought we'd be in for a decent day and so it proved.
I've seen some funny sights up the Midi but this was a first. We somehow lost him in the chaos at the bottom of the Arete but I was fascinated to see how he was going to ski whilst carrying that bag.
Me on some amazing spring snow on the Vallee Blanche.
The day turned out to be excellent (as anticipated) and the snow still good but slightly slushier (as anticipated). The banter was superb too and lunch in Italy looking into Courmayeur is hard to beat so all in all a great mini adventure.
It's forecast to rain tomorrow so hopefully that will mean snow up high....