3 Valleys Off Piste - Xmas & New Year conditions 2018/19

And so the counter clicks over to 2019...

Despite reasonable (albeit thin) early season conditions 3 days of rain to 2500m in the run-up to Christmas put paid to the quality of snow off piste in many areas.

Dec 20 - great powder in Courchevel for Emma, Paul, Alice, James, Freddie & Claire:

Following the rain the only solution for a while was to go high, where there was good chalky snow to be found - now we seem to be settled into an ever-lasting high pressure system, with blue skies and no sign of snow, but there is skiable snow to be found if you go looking (and put in a bit of effort) and even lower down now the rained-on snow has been through as few freeze-thaw cycles there is some fun skiing to be had.

Despite the dry start to the winter it is good to remember that 3 (or 4) years ago we had a similar start and yet the month of March of that year I racked up the best succession of deep powder days I can remember for a long long time!

Aiguille du Fruit NW couloir

A chance message from Yorick last night decided today's plan... I was going to go for a solo recce around the 3 Valleys, but instead we switched on 'mission mode' for a flog up (and blast down) the NW couloir on the Aiguille du Fruit. It has been a few years since I have been up here so it was nice to be back in such good conditions!

December 2018 - early season conditions & course availability

It has all been rather quiet on the blog of late - work & family combining to keep me away!

Yesterday was opening day for Courchevel and Meribel, and with a CPD day due to keep up to date with all things admin for BASI I met up with 3 colleagues for a day of discussions centred around working off piste - client briefing, terrain choice, new technologies and more were discussed at length throughout the day, with a few turns thrown in for good measure.

The snow in the 3 Valleys is quite thin at the moment, especially below 2300m. Above this there is the beginning of a base of cold winter snow, though plenty more is needed to get the classic off piste routes into viable condition:

Below 2300m there is really just a superficial covering off piste, and a skeleton network of pistes open (as usual for week 1 of the winter) - skiing back to the Chaudanne in Meribel is definitely not for the faint-hearted (or those with new skis!):

Today it is very windy (nothing open) but snowing hard, with the freezing level due to drop towards 800m later, so that should start to make a difference!

Winter 2018/2019 is almost fully booked, but there are still one or two spots left on the following courses:

Off Piste Introduction - The 3 Valleys - 26 Jan - 2 Feb 2019

Vanoise Freeride - 3 Valleys/Paradiski (& more) - 23 - 30 Mar 2019

** Please note: due to an unplanned forced change in web host the www.offpisteskiing.com website is not currently fully operational for the time being **

Please contact us for booking details for the courses.

Meanwhie, to keep the juices flowing for the coming winter here is an inspiring film from Tof Henry:

Born in Chamonix [FULL FILM] from ARMADA SKIS on Vimeo.

Cold!

We seem to be in a prolonged bubble of cold air at the moment, with -15 forecast for the next few days. No new snow on the horizon but there is still plenty of fresh to be found, you simply have to put in a bit of leg work to get to it now...

Yesterday was my last day with Nick, Rhian, Mike, Ben, James and Monica and we finished in style! See you in Lofoten next spring!

I have racked up a few days now on my new 'light' set-up of Whitedot Skis R.98 Carbonlites mounted with Salomon;s MTN pin binding - a great combination - full review to follow shortly...

Mid-January round-up: snow, snow, snow...

It has been 3 weeks weeks since my last post and some planned posts have fallen by the wayside temporarily - work and family oblige...

As most people are probably aware we are experiencing a one-in-20 year at the moment snowfall-wise, with huge depths of snow up in the mountains - the Courchevel couloirs are more filled in and banked out than I have seen them in 19 winters working here, and more snow is falling today (though the rain/snow limit is quite high :-(

2018 kicked off in good style, with a couple of days coaching Mike and Sarah (back from a knee injury last winter!), then it was straight over to Chamonix for my regular week with Tim, John and Phil:

This week I have been back in Courchevel with one of my longest-standing groups of clients - the weather has been pretty wild but there are few better places to be when it is like this as there is lots of sheltered tree skiing and even some high quality 'bus runs' if the lifts aren't working...

A quick, high quality tree run on the way home:

More trees:

And powder:

More powder:

Ewan exploring the boundaries of balance:

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!

Early season turns

I should have been in the office this morning, but somehow got side-tracked...

Now its all systems go tying up some loose ends of admin and packing for a work trip back to the UK: Baffin Island slideshow tomorrow night (7pm at The Plough in Hathersage for anyone near the Peak District / Sheffield), then on to the Kendal Mountain Festival for my usual stint on the main presenting team. Looking forward to seeing Jeremie Heitz and lots of other exciting speakers and films!

Night skiing

A busy weekend with the family... great snow in sheltered spots... only one solution...

Night skiing from Simon Christy on Vimeo.

On a more serious note the wind was absolutely howling on Friday, there has been massive snow transport and already one fatality yesterday in Courchevel (Dou des Lanches sector) - there is some good skiing to be done, but extreme care needs to be exercised currently and very careful slope selection is a must.

Courchevel couloir happiness

Traveling and discovering new places is great, but there's no place like home!

The Courchevel couloirs on a powder day are a great playground:

I have just wrapped up a week coaching Ed, Zoë, Jenny & Tracy - tough conditions with lots of poor visibility, but the team all made great progress, so much that I was happy to take them to one of my secret stashes this morning:

Secret spot... again... from Simon Christy on Vimeo.

Happy team!

The karma bank

Sometimes you have to do your time...

Yesterday was properly 'Scottish' up in Courchevel - wild winds, wet snowfall and only a handful of hardy souls out. Andy & Brian braved it through the day with me and acutally we scored a couple of really nice runs off the Saulire when visibility cleared (before they shut it because of the wind...!), but today was payback day - blue skies and powder from start to finish:

Caution is needed though - with the wild winds and varying temperatures the snowpack has had alot of big changes recently and will have plenty of traps - as evidenced by the two skier-triggered slides in Orelle today. It was also quite surprising to see how tracks appeared almost everywhere it was possible to get to (plus ça change...) despite some obvious releases triggered by the PIDA; not to mention the young English skier who got herself cragfast above some steep rocky terrain in Rocher de L'Ombre despite the clear blue skies and perfect visibility. Oh and the number of skiers charging about the further reaches of the couloirs on their own without any visible avalanche kit... Oh yes and the groups led by instructors heading into potential avalanche terrain without any obvious avalanche safety kit (while the non-professional could simply be ignorant of the risk the pros should know better - particularly this winter!).
Maybe I'm just getting old and jaded...