Saturday 20 February 2010






Keen for a day of exploring, touring and steep skiing, Alison and I decided (somewhat randomly!!) to head over to Chatel, and try to ski Mont de Granges. A combination of staying in bed too long, heavy traffic and a long lift queue meant that we didn't start skinning until midday, but with only 850 metres height to gain we weren't too worried.

The snow was pretty loose in places and the visibility was pretty poor so we decided about 3 that we weren't going to go to the summit, and we definitely weren't going to ski the Pertuis Couloir on the north west face like  we'd hoped. With 100 metres of 50 degrees followed by 400 metres of 45 degrees it didn't seem like the place to be in bad vis and dodgy snow! 

Slightly disappointed we ended up dropping off the West ridge which we'd climbed, and skiied a really nice powdery face. So we didn't manage the Pertuis but managed some skinning, amazing powder skiing and saw a beautiful new area - can't be bad!