This is becoming our regular winter ride but the singles are too wet at the moment until I service my front fork.

3 shadowing hours with Jean-Luc.First was a group less of adult beginners. As usual Jean-Luc (Papi rock n roll) is very good at animating the group with lots of stories from his sporting career.

I shouldn't have bothered really. When I arrived at the trail head it was raining quite hard and the piste was completely waterlogged but as I was on classic skis I thought it might not be too bad.

The link between le Sappey and St Hugues hasn't been prepared for 4 years. I'd lost faith they'd ever do it again but then a message from Chamechaude nordic, it would open this weekend.

From Pipay climb to the chalet de Pipay dessus then turn NE to climb to the ridge between the Soleil and Loup drags.

As junior was ice driving at 1650 I decided to test the link between the two parts of the resort. It is a bit rough as it is a shared path with walkers etc but okay on skating.

An afterwork, this time on skate skis so a bit quicker. The conditions were good up on the higher part of the trail with cold snow.

I took off work an hour early to head to the Col de Marcieu nordic trails. They had been pisted and reopened following fresh snow but there were a few reports of lack of depth.

Despite my fractured rib (from a car park fall onto a ski) I decided to do a long one with a climb to Emeindras. Around 400 meters over 6km for an average of 6%.

Short tour with junior (who was testing lighter TSL snow shoes) to l'Alpette which is a small field (hence the name) on the Aulp du Seuil climb.