Minimum altitude: 1,128 meters
Distance: 17 km
Slope Aspect: East
Vertical Climbed: 456 meters (1,496 feet)
Vertical Descended: 456 meters
After the disaster earlier in the week I decided to revisit the Col de Marcieu pistes from the St Hilaire end. By some magic, maybe a freeze/thaw cycle, things were much smoother although the trail hadn't been pisted at the start. After 3km I joined the prepared trail, a nice job with their new piste basher and skied over to Marcieu and then back up the black where Strava said I had a PR of 21m55 - nothing too exciting. The ski back to St Hilaire was very good, even the unprepared section which had a couple of very icy bit but on the flat so nothing tricky.
Pisted until the big descent to St Hilaire but skiable afterwards. There is a bare patch just after the start at the car park at the Col de Marcieu and a patch where the snow is thin on the climb from the CdM. The pisted sections are generally in good condition but a lot of leaves but the black is a bit thin descending the hair-pins of death. I was classic skiing but the classic tracks were unusable as they were full of leaves.
