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.