There was a bit of a weather window this morning. Unfortunately I was a bit late and missed the best conditions before 10am.There is still snow at the bottom of the pistes at Pipay.

Although I had a great day piste skiing at the start of the season at Chamrousse I'd not been back touring this year.

The forecast wasn't great for the weekend so I got up early to look out of the window. The clouds were starting to clear so I headed up to Prabert.

A little afterwork to ski the Cords Passage, a relatively secret descent off the very popular Chamechaude mountain. I stopped at the first step about 80 meters below the final summit.

With a return to winter, or Janvril as it is known it seemed like a good idea to take a tour. It was possible to start from le Baure climbing up through the pastures towards the Col du Coq.

A chance to look at the avalanche that ripped down to the Col de Porte - Hotel ski lift in January on a risk 5 weekend. The biggest avalanche in 42 years according to the locals.

This is almost certainly going to be my last Virgule Couloir of 2019. First off all getting up at 6am during the week is not my cuppa but the reward is seeing the sun rise over the Alps.

I was back from a week in Paris and feeling quite tired so wanted somewhere close and not too complicated - easy climb and ski and no reskinning.

Powder in March is pretty short lived, here today, gone tomorrow.

From Epernay follow the road that climbs to the south-east, then zig-zags to the south.