6 days into my winter season and I've still not had my skins on my skis as I've had epic powder every day straight off the lifts. Friday saw Matt, Tom Grant and I skiing off the Grand Montets mid station and it was unbelievable - deep, untracked powder all day. I'd never skied from the mid station much, but I was blown away by the quality of the terrain and the snow. The best part is that I live just down the road from Grand Montets so we could ski home.
Saturday was Megeve, and place famous for it's tree skiing, and I can see why. Easily accesible, and with almost no-one skiing it, we enjoyed ANOTHER day of perfect skiing with absolutely no uphill required. We stayed mainly on the St. Gervais side and had a great day. I will definitely be back when there is a high avalanche risk but plenty of snow, as there was on Saturday.
Today (Sunday) we did a quick lap off the Grand Montets mid station, but the snow as not quite as good as Friday, so we tried the Plan de L'Aiguille (Aiguille du Midi mid station) and that was surprisingly average, so we ended up at Brevent. I'd never skied any of the couloirs from the Brevent mid station, but they looked so good from the lift that we dropped in, and found some incredible powder in the trees, and in the couloirs themselves. We then had a run down the Bellin Couloir from the top of Brevent, and finished off with another mid station run. It's unusual for the snow quality on Brevent (south facing) to be better than the resorts on the north side of the Valley, but the snow was simply perfect all the way, the Bellin in particular being spectacular. It's steep (40 degrees) but the snow was so forgiving that you can ski it really fast and without any stress.
We reckon we skied 5000 vertical metres today, and virtually all of that was in tight trees or couloirs, so we're off ski touring tomorrow for a rest day...
Matt in his element
"Cautious" Tom Grant
Another hard day in Cham
Homeward bound
Free caps at Megeve!
Steady
Tristan, Matt, Tom Moores and Emma at Megeve
Me in the Bellin
Big ski days require big calories