A return to old haunts at the start of the season (hmmm remember McCammon’s warnings about familiarity) with a trip to the Grand Rocher. However this time I left from les Vincents at 900m which I haven’t done since 2005. About 30cm of heavy powder at that level.

I had trouble remembering all the forest paths and roads and there were a lot of fallen trees. Bizarrely the fallen trees seemed to nearly all be across the path with very few in the forests themselves. I guess they are supported by other trees there.

I dug a couple of pits on the Cret de Luisard where it had been very windy over the weekend. Only about 30cm depth @ 1800m on the ridge and the snowpack was pretty homogeneous with no sign of any weak layers forming.

Pierre Roubet’s Chalet

Snow had been a bit too skied at the weekend between the ridge and the Pierre Roubet chalet to be great skiing and the fresh had not yet filled in the tracks. I found an excellent direct route through the woods and there was more snow depth at lower altitudes and great skiing. Only black spot, a parking fine slapped on the car at les Vincents. Country coppers obviously don’t have much to do with their days.