Thu, 6 February 2020
Minimum altitude: 1,285 meters
Distance: 21.2 km
Slope Aspect: East
Vertical Climbed: 568 meters (1,864 feet)
Vertical Descended: 324 meters
Second day shadowing. We had a different group of kids, this time on skate skis. Main problem was balance, although they were not bad. L. laid out a track with cones down a slope - the cones are useful to keep children on track, not to ski down too far and to warn other skiers there is an activity going on. We started without poles just skiing down and coming up. Then skiing lifting one leg then the other at each cone. Then a small jump at each cone, then snowplough turns around the cones. After this the kids had enough and we went for an "off piste" adventure through the woods. We merged with another group and did some descents over a series of 3 bumps.
I found I had some free time and climbed to the Charmant Som, very hard today as the track was very cut up by walkers and the snow was pretty soft. The GPS died on the climb, probably a blessing.
Soft snow on the climb to Charmant som, lots of foot prints. Snow windblown on the plateau. No piste prep after the Oratoire. Lots of footprints from walkers.