A very quick Couloir en Virgule before picking junior up from school with the advantage that I caught the dozen people in front of me on the climb. 35cm of snow had fallen since Sunday morning.

A trip with the Grimpe. The weather didn't look promising in Grenoble. After heavy rain on the road snow started at Beaufort. We parked lower down than les Maisonettes at la Frasse.

From the junction at la Frasse behind the recycling climb the field roughly following the summer path to les Maisonettes (1150) passing by a reservoir at 1200m.

I heard that my Thursday meeting was delayed which gave a chance to do a quick tour between two weather fronts on Thursday morning. Snow was still good above 1600m - fresh powder on a firm(ish) base.

With considerable avalanche risk in the Chartreuse, large skier triggered slabs possible on north facing slopes according to the bulletin, it was not a day to tempt the devil.

The original plan for the day was to ski in the Bauges but with 30cm of fresh snow and poor weather in the morning my friends decided to stay local with a "safe" option.

It is rare to make tracks on the Dent de Crolles these days but the fresh snow and wind had wiped any old tracks and at 9am no-one had yet set out for this iconic summit.

It has snowed consistently over the last couple of weeks and although I didn't expect the forest to be great the rest of the route should be ok.

Short ski tour with Mike to check out the SW bowl of the Pravouta. The road has a good layer of snow on it now, almost like a piste.

Mike and I decided to do a quick loop on the Chemin de l'Herse with our skating skids.