Descent to the glacier d'ArgentièreFrom the col des Grands Montets ski down to the glacier d'Argentière.

The nordic ski area extends over an altitude from 1400 to 1500 meters. There are 22km of runs for nordic skiing plus marked snow shoe trails.

Despite three snow episodes (dumps as they are called on the anglo fora) over the last week the conditions are not great and a couple of days of foehn could wipe out any gains.

I took advantage of a weather window just after lunch to tour to the top of the Bec Charvet from les Meunieres.

A morning session to take advantage of the 60cm of fresh snow that fell in the Chartreuse (ok more like 20cm at 1000m altitude) with a tour of the off pistes of our local ski area at St Hilaire.

Skating session from the Col de Porte. The first 1500 meters were hard, old snow, frozen in places but the slope isn't too steep here so not a big problem.

From the hairpin by the Pont des Cottaves (bridge 1110 meters about 2km on the n. side of the Col De Port) follow pylons to the bottom of the Chamont Som chair lift.

This is the winter of our discontent. Or so it would seem reading ski forums given the very poor snow conditions.

Climb to the summit of the ski pistes by the snowshoe trails (avoid walking on the cross country ski runs as this ruins the tracks) from the top of the runs climb behind the drag lift then follow a fo

La Mure des Molles - The Wall of the Softies.