It was a grey day. After my run last week I wasn't keen to repeat the experience and have to rest up for a few days. Cycling - too cold and mucky. Nordic skiing? not enough snow.

Back up to the 7 laux, they'd opened the Oursiere lift but we ended up stuck on it for half an hour when it suffered some kind of breakdown. The pisteurs were a bit cagey as to what had happened.

Well not really storming but more grovelling with a time of around 16 minutes to the top. It is a very very steep climb for the first 1km.

There is an old saying that if the snow conditions are uncertain you are better off classic skiing. Well after 24 hours of foehn wind things couldn't be more uncertain.

Spent the morning doing a mix of classic drills then some skating. The icy trails were not great fun skating so I called it a day around midday.

I didn't ski much but took advantage of the early doors opening to work on my classic ski technique. Trying to improve kick etc.

We'd heard the Sept Laux was opening after another 50cm of fresh snow at the summit of the pistes bringing the total to 1 meter. We made it up around 9.

The forecast was for rain so I was happy to see it was still dry at 9am so I headed to the dyke cycle path with my classic skis as I hadn't done this since the Semnoz.

I hadn't been out on the bike for some time so took the opportunity of a dry day to ride into work then up the Venon climb.

Early November snow is not uncommon but always nice to restart the ski season.