Little after work ski tour to check out the snow. I've been very busy the last few weeks and haven't had much time to get out.

Return to St Hilaire this morning. Much improved with fresh snow. We skied the Canyon off piste in excellent condition. It is passable from top to bottom without problem.

The Ramiettes was open down to the 4 chemins. It was fairly hard work coming back up especially linked with the Cret du Poulet climb on soft snow.

The bottom of the Barioz nordic area had suffered from the spring weather that reigned all week so only the Creve Coeur was really open at the bottom and there was a 150 meter bare section on the clim

Basically pretty much all the between the pistes is skiable at le Grand Serre, it is one big off piste domain. We started with the long Vallons run which is a bit like an itinerary.

Surprising season. The long range weather reports in the autumn warned of a warm Jan/Feb with a return to winter in March and so it is.

From the ski resort of l'alpe du Grand Serre (la Bache) follow a trail to les Desserts behind the Grizzli buildings.

From the Desert drag lift follow a track (vallons piste) through the Pres de Clos to pt 1448m then climb up the Grande Montage slopes to the ridge. You can check out the couloirs from here.

Every mountain range has its resort X. A solitary lift on some deserted mountain col that leads to some hidden backcountry stash. Or so the teasers would have us believe.

Skate up to the Grand Rocher via the Refuge and Cret Luisard pistes. Still lacking some snow at the bottom when I arrived, the bare patches were covered by a few cms of fresh at 5pm.