Steep Vanoise 2015 - part 2

Yesterday we ventured further afield over to St Foy for a look at conditions on the North face of the Fogliettaz. Sadly, as expected, due to the wind last week the upper face wasn't in great condition (about the worst I've ever skied it actually) but we still found some nice 'old powder' to ski:

Lower down things started to improve, although only on very specific aspects:

Rather than stick to plan A of skinning up to the Col D'Argentiere, Jerry, Stuart, Hernan and I went off exploring towards the Italian border, where we found some good snow and a nice couloir and face to ski:

Well worth the effort of 'going for a look'!

Having scoped conditions from St Foy, today we headed for Les Arcs and a spring snow run down the S Couloir on the Aiguille Rouge. This is one of the big classics of Les Arcs, with a 45º entry and then several hundred metres of 40-42º followed by a big descent down to Villaroger. All in all some 700m of good steep skiing and a 1700m overall descent!

View from St Foy - the S couloir is the obvious S-shaped couloir on the left (funny that!):

Ian:

Dave:

Stuart:

Good spring snow in the sun, and chalky snow in the centre:

Some good snow to be had lower down too:

Last day tomorrow - bring it on!