Steep Vanoise 2011 (part 3)

Last day of the Steep Vanoise course today, and a combination of dodgy weather forecast and the need to swing by a good ski shop drove us up to Courchevel. Patrick at Camp de Base was helpful as ever solving Paul's binding troubles, and on heading up the lifts it seemed we had made the right call with the weather, with dark clouds everywhere except Courchevel!

After a warm-up lap in Emile Allais we wandered over towards the Croix de Verdons couloir - less of a 'wander' than usual with quite a spicy entry into the Curé couloir, and very little snow on the ridge above the CdV...

Hiking up out of the Curé couloir:



On the ridge up to the Croix de Verdons:



Graham in action:



Ian:



Good powder to be found still:



After lunch we made the hike up to the Rocher de la Loze to ski the main couloir on the North 'Freeride' face. Paul in action:



One last ride up the cable car, and the powder radar came into its own as we dropped into a side couloir to the Tournier and found deep (if heavy) powder with not a track in it.

And so another good week comes to a close. Thanks to Paul, Ian & Graham for putting up with my mad plans! We certainly saw a biut of what the vanoise has to offer through the week...