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.