Steep Vanoise Tours (part 3)

Day 5 of the Steep vanoise Tours week saw us heading high again, with a warm-up run down to Plan Bouchet before heading up to the highest lift-served point of the 3 Valleys. The snow on the North face was still invery good condition down to about 2800m.

Jack enjoying some deep powder below the cliffs:



Nick in action:



After a second lap and some transceiver/avalanche training the weather started closing in, and after a short lap in one of the couloirs of the Caron we called it a day.

Day 6 proved to be the highlight of the week, with a good mix of skinning & skiing. Traversing the Caron/Brequin ridge we managed to find some good snow down to the start of our skin track for the day.

Looks wind-affected, but was great to ski:



Great snow a bit lower down for Nick:



Jim matches track for track:



Time for some uphill action, heading for the Mt Brequin:





A short warm-up pitch to get us in the mood for the main event:



The bootpack u to the summit of the Brequin:



Looking into the North Couloir, 2 tracks from this morning... pipped to the post!:



Jack high in the couloir:



Jim drops in:



And opens up the gas lower down:




Nick



Jack leaving great tracks:



Happy?



And the great snow kept on coming...:



600m vertical later, the snow finally started turning:



What a way to finish the week!

Despite the tricky conditions we managed to find some good skiing every day, with the Aiguille de Chanrossa & Mt Brequin the icing on the cake... roll on next year's course!