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.

Too much snow to go further afield this morning so I did some cross country American style. That is, making tracks around the local football pitch.

Chamrousse is the birthplace of French skiing.

I wanted to see how much snow was left on the Ch. de l'Herse. I figured I'd start at St Hilaire as it is much higher.

First aulp du Seuil of the ski season, better late than never. I'd hoped for more snow, the avalanche bulletin had mentioned 20cm of fresh, it was probably a quarter of that.

When I arrived at the car-park it was already full at 10am although some people were starting to leave saying the snow had become unskiably soft.

The pistes over at the Cross Country lodge were too soft to ski as they are south facing.

The main reason to climb to the Cochette is the view. That said on a day of fresh snow the forest either side of the summit trail is skiable and the avalanche risk is not huge.

I couldn't believe le Sappey would still be open. It had rained to 2500 meters and we'd had warm storm force winds for days. I still had my doubts at the car park.

A return to St Hilaire du Touvet, this is becoming a habit but it had been raining for days with a lot of avalanche activity. We would also avoid the scrum of cars at le Sappey or Barrioz.