Difficult xc skiing at the moment, it is either too hard or too soft and there is a lack of snow below 1400 meters. I'd skied Chamrousse at the start of November, nearly 5 months ago.

I decided to go up to the Col de Porte as I was short of time to classic ski a bit and do some no pole exercises on the stadium area. A bit icy on the steep uphills but generally good.

The forecast was cloudy for Saturday but getting up at 6.50 I saw it was clear at altitude so some hope for a refreeze, the first for some days.

I've been really tired after the 42k marathon so didn't feel like skiing today. I saw Barioz had all the trails open and it is just half an hour's drive. Ideal during the petrol crisis.

This was going to be my first nordic ski marathon. I'd skied the distance or more for fun but this was in competition and I'd always skied when the conditions were good. Not so much for this Sunday.

Same climb time to Charmant Som as Saturday morning: 30m05s, so just missed going under half an hour. Very fast descent. Hit 49kp/h under the chairlift and 6m09 for the whole descent.

I decided to have another crack at the Charmant Som climb before the club training this morning. I set out at 7:45am and was the first person on the climb.

I didn't know what the runs at le Sappey would be like. The bottom slopes are below 1000m. In fact things were okay, just.

I'd been intending to get back to the Entremonts as the black was open. Only today they closed it, maybe due to lack of snow in one spot? The rest seemed okay me.

I was a bit doubtful as the webcam showed it was a bit grim but things seemed to be clearing toward noon so I headed up.