Minimum altitude: 1,282 meters
Distance: 21.4 km
Slope Aspect: East
Vertical Climbed: 588 meters (1,929 feet)
Vertical Descended: 601 meters
The forecast was cloudy for Saturday but getting up at 6.50 I saw it was clear at altitude so some hope for a refreeze, the first for some days. I started the climb to Charmant Som, there was already a track in front from this morning but also two walkers who'd gone up after the piste was prepared and left huge holes in the previous evening's soft snow. Not good and dangerous for skiers as the craters had refrozen.
The climb was pretty good and I arrived at the Oratoire in 29m10, finally under 30 minutes and nearly a minute faster than my previous PR - that's 601 meters / hour climbing on an 8% grade over 3km. Partly due to the conditions. I skied over to the Bergeries in 34m19, also a PR from 35m16 on Feb 9. To finish off 2m33 to climb to the teleski from the biathlon area, I wasn't really trying but a PR, apparently.
I could see the downhill would be tricky. The frozen foot prints could really be felt under the skis, like skiing over a golf ball in places. Around the final bend I hit some kind of hole and went down, hitting my face on the pole handle and breaking it in two. I had a bruised nose, cut lip and cut chin with blood everywhere. The piste patrol patched me up and I did my ski class having borrowed a pole from the hire shop. Not a great but a painful end to a successful campaign. Next stop 28 minutes for the climb.
Very hard snow. Beginning to get a bit thin on the climb but okay at the col. Refrozen tracks of walkers and a skier which were dangerous when descending.
