Minimum altitude: 1,280 meters
Distance: 8.8 km
Slope Aspect: North
Vertical Climbed: 354 meters (1,161 feet)
Vertical Descended: 349 meters
After the ski touring, I took the opportunity to test a new pair of classic skis, slightly longer than my previous ones (201 cm vs 196 cm), with the hope of improving glide.
I set off for a loop of the trails around the Col de Porte. The wind had clearly been through: quite a bit of debris on the tracks, with lichen and small twigs blown down from the trees. As anyone skiing on skins knows, these can easily catch in the grip zone and disrupt your balance. The key is to stay light and glide over them, though I did take a fall after getting caught in a false track left by another skier, not yet fully accustomed to the extra length.
Once into the rhythm, the difference was noticeable. The added length definitely improved glide, making it easier to carry speed between sections.
After completing the main loop, I headed out again for a shorter circuit, skipping the southern side of the area. In total: 8.5 km and 333 m of climbing, quite a lot of climbing but it feels entirely plausible here, as nothing is ever truly flat in the Chartreuse. The GPS file looks clean.
There were a few people out, but not many. Skate skiing around midday looked like hard work, with that classic “neige brassée”1 on the climbs. In those conditions, the classic setup definitely felt like the faster and more efficient option.
1. Nothing to do with brewing beer, it means to "churn or mix" so this is snow that has been churned up which you see a lot on climbs if the track isn't frozen. Hard to ski as the surface is powdery, broken and uneven often with deep "faux pistes"
0C, not too windy in the trees. Lots of debris.
