Climbed up from Prerond to the Grand Collet and skied down to the bottom of the ski area where we recovered the car. Club groups were training at the Pre Rond.

First time ski touring at the Collet de Allevard for tot. We followed the ski touring trail laid out by the resort. It is really very pleasant.

I realized I'd never descended the West Couloir of the Petit Som. I'd climbed it once and recalled it was a pretty steep afair. More than the 35 degrees mentioned in the guidebooks.

There had been considerable snow on Saturday, enough to ski in the valley. I saw les 7 Laux had opened its cross country ski area with all pistes open and on free access.

Usual mix of steep Italian ramps and bad roads. The surfaced road ends just after Cassano so this is just a little tour of the foothills. The Orta backcountry is not overly interesting.

Classic style, double polling down, kick double pole up finishing with a bit of diagonal stride.25m56 down. 4m47 pace. Looking quite slow compared to skating now where I'm in the 3m05 range.

Early start due to the heat wave and a lot of people had the same idea. I was working on technique: high on the skis and using body weight to push, bending the knees as well as the hips.

More technique work. Trying for balance and feeling the outside edge of the skis.Overall 3m29/km, which is pretty good plus a PR of 19m28 on the south leg - previous PR was 20m43.

The gps didn't start properly but time was around 3m50/km.

A quick tour along the lake to check out conditions. It was pretty hot after lunch with a bit of a breeze from the north.