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Sancy Free
Posted: 30 December 2007 11:19 PM  
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For lovers of Auvergne mountains, modest in height but full of steep surprises only meters away from the pistes, I have started a blog to share these slopes and couloirs as the season unfolds:
http://web.mac.com/ericlodi/Sancy_Free

Best wishes to PisteHors members for a snowy 2008!

 
 
Posted: 02 January 2008 10:25 AM   [ # 1 ]  
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That’s good stuff Eric. I learned to ski on the Sancy and have a soft spot for the couloirs. You may have seen this video from the French national news

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8059746201604333068

in which you will see PisteHors.com featured.

 
 
Posted: 02 January 2008 08:31 PM   [ # 2 ]  
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David, thanks for the link, I had heard about the TV report but never seen it as I was not in France at the time. I am glad they quoted PisteHors as your presentation of the Mont-Dore couloirs in the ski areas wiki is excellent.  grin

If you have learned to ski on the Sancy the good thing is that you can certainly deal with any kind of icy snow around the world wink

For this season, so far so good. The snow has mostly fallen beginning of December, but it is still good and soft on the tracks in the resorts. Off tracks, the wind blew a good deal away, and the couloirs are now mostly hard snow, not very forgiving… I have seen at the bottom of Puy Ferrand in Chaudefour valley huge fragile frost crystals under a frozen crust, but it seems very localized, the snow elsewhere should be a good base for the rest of the season. Let’s now wait for the next fall, it seems to be coming for the next days, I hope it will allow me to present more “secrets” of the Sancy on my blog. I have in mind a couple of spectacular but not difficult itineraries… but there is not enough snow yet. Let’s light a candle in Clermont-Ferrand’s cathedral!

 
 
Posted: 05 March 2008 11:43 PM   [ # 3 ]  
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I have added to Sancy Free a topo for the Mont-Dore couloirs, mostly with pictures and arrows so that my English speaking friends can use it as well (with a link to pistehors.com page as well).
Topo Couloirs Mont-Dore

What I didn’t expect is to get a lot of contradictory feedback on how these couloirs are “really” named! It seems there are different sources and schools of thought, chapels should we say in French, around this small but remarkable mountain. Climbers and skiers may also give different names to the same thing. That’s an interesting development, I’ll try and sort that out and hopefully let you know the authentic names of your preferred spots!