Not great skating conditions. It seemed ok at 9.

Plan A had been to spend a morning in les 7 Laux.

Where to go? Another avalanche alert, resorts and pistes shut. Clearly we'd need to stay below 2000m and given the claggy cloud somewhere with tree line skiing.

Due to the weather we had to reign in our ambitions. Finally a trip up to Allevard, 40 minutes from home. Road were clear to resort. We parked at the bottom at the Grand Paul lift.

We decided to head up to the Sept Laux despite the holiday crowds.

Trip to St Hilaire du Touvet for a bit of ski on a very cloudy day. The snow on piste was ok but off piste it really depended. The Gelinote had not been pisted and was heavy powder but skiable.

No snow for cross country so a little cycle ride to blow out the work cob webs.

I currently have a my winter bike - an 8 sp Giant, a bit heavy at 14kg. I don't really understand how it is so heavy really. Clearly aluminium frames are not that light.

Return to the Plan des Hotonnes. It is a pretty flat ski area and you don't really have any long runs like some other small ski areas. Great for families. However no stones this time compared to 2023.

Return to le Retord as tot wanted to do a bit of alpine skiing but didn't want to stay too long either.