great to see piste hors is waking up again

autumn is definitely here now

great stuff

not long now

Talking of which, I drove through Chamonix yesterday on the way to Turin. The autumn colours were out but more importantly the first autumn snow was falling in the valley with snow settling on the mounains above 1500 meters. Just a dusting but a reminder that winter is on the way!

There was actually snow on the ground in Chamonix on Saturday AM (about 3-5cm - it melted by the afternoon, but you can still see snow on the trees around 1600m this AM (Sunday).

Took this photo on the way back today of the Pointe Percee in the Aravis. Still snow above 1500 meters. According to some people who got their skis out there was 10-15cm. They must have been mad.

Still nothing to get too excited about, this won’t hang around for long.

It did make for good sledging conditions! I’ve posted some pictures and a short video here. These were taken today at 1800m (Avoriaz).

Hah, that actually looks pretty good.

Here is a selection from skitour

http://www.skitour.fr/sorties/dome-de-polset,14067.html#sortie
http://www.skitour.fr/sorties/pointe-du-ratti,14065.html#sortie
http://www.skitour.fr/sorties/croix-de-chamrousse,14066.html#sortie

Nothing that would persuade me to ruin my skis though!

up in the col des Mosses on Sunday looking down at Château d’Oex and towards Gstaad :

I did think I’ve skied on less cover but I’m not sure it would have been worth carrying skis up.

The Jaunpass yesterday :

Melting quick there at 2000m and although I’ve not been up today the webcams seems to show the rain was upto at least 2000m last night.