Monday 3 February 2014

Les Contamines, Les Houches and Le Tour

It's been a funny last few days weather wise and the forecasters had been calling for a big dump of snow since the middle of last week. It finally arrived on Saturday night and there is more forecast to come but given how unreliable the forecasts have been this year, I'll believe it when I see it.

Whether the forecasters are doing a good job or not, I've had a great few days checking out a few different spots. First up was a day at Les Contamines. The plan was just to shred the pistes from start to finish but we actually managed to find some nice off piste in amongst screaming down red runs. Overall a great day, and yet another reminder that a day in Contamines is rarely a bad idea. 


The girls at Les Contamines, Mont Blanc behind.


Shredding terrain!


Sophie seeking out the powder.


Caroline loving it.


Near the end of the day, Caroline and I went exploring and she had the AUDACITY to question my route finding!!!!

Next up was an excellent afternoon at Les Houches with Sharon. We skied just about everywhere and found some great snow, the highlights being a run under the Prarion cables and then one under the Bellevue lift. A word of warning with the Bellevue though - the snow needs to be stable and plentiful or things can get pretty spicy. If you get it in good conditions, however, it is awesome. I'd say we were somewhere in between spicy and awesome :)


Atmospheric skiing at Les Houches.


Sharon under the Bellevue cables.

Today (Monday) I headed up to Le Tour with Tom Moores and we ended up having a superb afternoon blasting around in some good powder. The back bowls of Le Tour are pretty sketchy avalanche wise so we stuck to very conservative terrain and spent most of the day grinning from ear to ear.


Tom in the back bowls.


The sun even popped out occasionally.


Headed home.

The forecast is now for very changeable weather for the foreseeable so let's see how it pans out. It's been a really funny winter so far so my best guess would be to stay flexible and go with the flow as things develop. I've no doubt I'll be getting out so stay tuned for updates.