Afternoon quick ski tour to the Roche Noire. There is a reasonable amount of snow at Pipay, pretty dense. I skied the Antenna couloir with was heavy powder except for a section of harder snow.

From the Parc de l'île d'Amour follow the cycle path south for 100 meters then cross over a suspension bridge to the left bank of the Isere.

Great early season cross country skiing conditions on the plateau d'Arselle. The Astragale black wasn't open.

http://www.chamrousse.com/nordique.

The Cross country ski area had opened over the weekend and the pistes had been prepared but was closed today. The zero-iso was around 1700 m on Sunday coupled with rain.

The climbs are not too long. Basically 4 climbs of around 300 meters. It starts right in the heart of Lyon in the 9th district but the traffic pretty much goes by the turn for the first climb.

The conditions have considerably improved since the weekend with around 20 to 40 cm of new snow on the start of a base.

Skate from the Col de Porte (which opened today after 20cm of new snow) to the Oratoire. I didn't go any further as it was very windy and zero viz.

Reasonably dry except on the steep section just before the col de la croix des Ayes where the stones were humid and a bit slippery. The route is pretty logical.

From the parking ride into Brignoud crossing the railway line and turn left at the lights. At 2.