The Magic Line

A quick blast down the 'Magic Line' yesterday.

I have been skiing this line for a good few years now and still have yet to see another set of tracks in here (that should jinx it now I've said that...) particularly since my ski buddy and esoterica-explorer-in-chief Will passed away a few years ago, although I have started taking the precaution of skinning 5 minutes to get in rather than taking the gravity-assisted route to avoid 'track-followers'!

Magic Line 28 12 2017 from Simon Christy on Vimeo.

This is a perfect line for bad weather days - trees all the way for visibility, far enough away from the main ridges to reduce worry of wind loading at the top, though still steep enough that care is needed - perfect spacing in the clearing as long as no more than 4 or 5 people are skiing it...

It is currently quite cold (-10/-15C) keeping the powder nice and fluffy, and with more snow on the way the next week or two should be great!

A great start to the season!

Merry Christmas to everyone from us here at offpisteskiing!!

The blog has been very quiet for the last month due to a number of reasons, but here we go for another winter of fun.

It has been a busy start to the winter, flat out with work since the lifts opened here in the 3 Valleys. With great early December snowfalls giving one of the best starts to the season for many years (and certainly better than the last 3 pre-New Years) scope has been wide open for some fun skiing.

A few pictures to sum up this December so far:

Mid-December, skiing back to Bozel after a day's work:

18 December, thigh deep powder in the Courchevel trees with Dave S:

Paul P - sunshine and powder above Courchevel:

Friday 22 - a perfect day of 'micro-tours' with Dave S. No more than 30 minutes skinning every time, for 1000m of descent in untracked snow - perfect!

We are currently enjoying a bit of family time and skiing with offpisteskiing Jrs 1 & 2, but coming up in the next few days on the blog:

- thoughts on early season skiing: given a large number of accidents in late November/early December has the culture of 'if its white we will ski' gone too far?

- review of Contour Hybrid Split skins: having always been a Black Diamond Glidelite Mix devotee will these make me defect? Quite possibly given experiences so far...

- a look ahead to winter 2018: coaching courses and ski touring adventures in the Alps, Norway and Iceland...

See you soon!