Tête de la Grisonnière--or, Vive les Vacances! 

Tête de la Grisonnière:
admiring our tracks from La Mure

While Brad slaved away in the lab, Olivier (who apparently rarely has to work), Jono (who will soon be concluding his perma-vacation) and I took advantage of beautiful weather and good snow coverage to take a ski day down near the Taillefer.

View to the south: looking at the Devoluy's impressive Obiou

  


  







While the view was incredible, initially, the snow was disappointing. The micro-climate effect was present, meaning that 35 minutes south of Sunday and Monday's abundant Chartreusian powder, no new snow had fallen. 

Jono(bottom right), slogs up the last
25 minutes of the climb

Le Vieux Bouquetin charges

We finally gave up on the skinning, and Olivier, le vieux bouqetin, led the charge up the final pitches of the climb, where the snow had two layers of crust, and a small powder layer in between--perfect for slippery skinning.

Happy to be at the top

 Finally arriving at the top, sweaty and tired, we enjoyed a wind-free sunny day, taking an hour long lunch break--a time frame that would prove beneficial for the snow on the descent.

After tea, coffee, oranges, cookies, pizza, calzone, cheese, dried fruit, chocolate and sun-tanning, we pulled off our skins, tightened our boots, and pointed our skis downhill.

Lucky Luke

We were thrilled with what we found: the crust that had so frustrated us for the climb had softened in the sun, revealing a mix of consolidated powder and spring-like corn. The turns were excellent, as evidenced by Jono's consistently joyful whooping and yelling.

I remember once, Nancy recounted a story from Buke's childhood.  She had asked him what his favorite emotion was.  She was taken off guard by his response: relief.   Since then, I have thought a lot about what I might count as my favorite emotion, most often, I settle on pleasantly surprised.  Lucky for me, yesterday's tour embodied exactly that.  After a long, tough montée, through crust and slippery snow, a descent of fun turns through great snow--VERY pleasantly surprising.

Pleasant Suprise.

LE MONT CHARVIN - HAUTE SAVOIE

        This past weekend Hillary and I headed to Annecy to spend a night with my host-parents (from 2006!) followed by a day out skiing with Darin and Christophe. We let Darin choose the itinerary and he took us to the site of the first ski tour I did with Christophe, the Mont Charvin. During the return trip I found the skin track still to be steep enough to cause pucker factor, and the sculpted summit ridge still felt like it should glaciated and way up high in the Mont Blanc range despite its modest altitude and the occasional tuft of grass poking through. All in all a beautiful day out and great to reconnect with our friends from the north. 

Smile, it's a beautiful day in the Alps.

CHARTREUSE POW

         The low-lying Chartreuse have been getting pummeled with powder like nowhere else in the region, and locals are calling this the best winter in thirty years. Hillary and I weren't planning to ski on Sunday until we found ourself in the midst of 2m snow banks on the drive home. The ensuing cold smoke was so good that we couldn't resist a dawn patrol the next morning with Olivier (dressed to play) and Jono. 

PIC DE BURE - Dévoluy Massif

          Cedric gave Olivier and I a tour of what he refers to as the most beautiful country in the world,  the Hautes-Alpes region surrounding the small city of Gap. While it's hard to say for sure if he's right, sun and powder sure are persuasive. The beginning of our day was nonetheless pretty rocky -- Olivier and I got up at 5am in Grenoble, housed eggs, bacon and coffee and then noticed a latenight text message pushing back our rendez vous -- back to sleep! Then we spent a half an hour without cell service at the trailhead blasting Nique Ta Mère and eagerly waiting for Cedric to roll up only to realize that we were supposed to have meet down in the valley rather than at the trailhead. Then the snow was crusty and wind schralped and Olivier nearly threw a tantrum. In the end though, Cedric made the right call and we got around to appreciating summit views and untracked snow.

On the summit plateau, which includes an astrophysics observatory.

Looking back on our tracks down the Combe d'Aurouze. Olivier was quite pleased with his split board as you can see.

Hillary is Back: ski touring above the Chazelet  

We were thinking of blizzard-bound New Englanders yesterday and thought these sun-filled images might be appreciated. Before celebrating our friend Mathilde's birthday last night at François' family's place above la Grave, Hill and I headed up to ski for the day before bad weather and hangovers rolled in this morning. I can rarely think of a mellow tour feeling so satisfying, for three reasons: 1) Hill was finally healthy and we were able to get out for the first time together in weeks 2) we expected a combination of wind scoured and wind slabed snow and in the end were able to find sheltered goods and 3) skiing through sun-drenched terrain and turning around to the see the north face of the Meije is awesome. As we eyed the higher summits in all directions, I think we both started regaining the motivation for tackling big days out together. Good thing the ski season is still young!

Small Missions...

All of the lights: sunrise view of downtown Grenoble from the Moucherotte (1901m).

Jono and Cedric in the southern Ecrins.

Meanwhile, Hillary rides out the flu and does not partake in small missions.