Most of the small ski areas have been suffering from lack of snow but the Grand Plan actually is at a similar altitude to the 7 Laux so within the fortunate range where the snow has fallen enough to b

L said it would be interesting to come on Saturday and so I was set for a long session, first with the SNC groups (saw some old friends from last year) then with the SNC kids.

Second day shadowing. We had a different group of kids, this time on skate skis. Main problem was balance, although they were not bad. L.

I'm doing some shadowing with the Ecole de Porte after my BASI Nordic course. Started by helping with the laser Biathlon then moved on to a 2 hour session with the schoolkids who were doing classic.

After a quiet weekend a return to the Col de Porte for a lunch ski - currently very little open in the Chartreuse so I'm using my season pass when and where I can.

No ski this weekend so I decided to use a spare hour and a half on Saturday afternoon to ride up and look at the snow conditions on the road to the Col du Coq.

First climb of the Charmant Som since getting back from Cham.

Rapid lunch ski on skate 2 and skate 1. Pretty easy snow in general. Still lots of work to do on skate 2, reasonably happy climbing now on skate 1 although no records.

We headed up reasonably early to the Collet. It was very cold, especially on the Claran lift which was not sheltered from the breeze.

After the morning activity a farewell, then, to the Chamonix tracks with a last skate up to the top end and back.