Minimum altitude: 1,452 meters
Distance: 57.3 km
Slope Aspect: Various
Vertical Climbed: 7,248 meters (23,781 feet)
Vertical Descended: 7,246 meters
Tired after yesterday's efforts at Val Cenis we decided on a lazy day at les 7 Laux just near home. We skied with our neighbour and some friends who'd been in resort all week and were getting bored with the hard pistes and rocks. They were keen to do some off pistes and we followed, for the most part, although some of their plans to find 3 meters of powder were a bit mad. We started with the Vallons run, the jewel in the Sept Laux crown. Nice at the top but really lacking snow at the end, which was officially closed. Still it was a choice of skiing out or a 50 meter steep climb through the woods to get to the bottom of the Oursiere lift, skiing won but the skis probably didn't appreciate it.
We then skied a new official piste, the "noisette" off the top of the Cerf chair at Pipay. Les 7 Laux seem to be specializing in very steep black runs and this was no exception. This series of bowls used to be an off piste but has been repurposed. I was initially sceptical as I thought it would be icy and my edges are bad but it turned out to be pretty grippy chalking powder. It is very hard to judge what will be skiable and what won't.
We finished with an off piste from the top of the Oursiere chair on a north east slope that was in full sun. Transformed snow leading down in the Eveque black. I don't think we've skied this pitch before. A couple of the friends skied a steeper, adjecent slope towards the Col du Pra but it involved 15 minutes of walking to access.
Quite a big change in conditions since the start of the week. Generally the pistes were pleasant to ski - just a bit of very hard snow at the top of the Pra pistes. However a lot of stones and very crowded at the usual pinch points with quite a few accidents.