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...

Couloir scratching video

A short edit of yesterday's couloir action - very impressed with the performance of my new Gopro Hero 4 Silver - straight out of the box, no fancy settings and it copes remarkably well with light & shade...

Couloir scratching - 6 Jan 2015 from Simon Christy on Vimeo.

Steep Vanoise 2014 - St Foy

On Thursday we made the (almost mandatory) trip to St Foy for day 4 of this year's Steep Vanoise week. As always, it delivered big style!

A short skin up to the Fogliettaz summit and we dropped in to the North face, and found some good cold soft snow (some might call it powder..!) - even 2 1/2 weeks after the last snowfall!

With such good snow to be skied (all things considered) we hung a hard right traverse below the top face and put skins on again to head up to the Col D'Argentiere and on to the top of Couloir Doudou.

Doudou looked rather unappealing so we headed back to the Col D'Argentiere, where I had spied a totally unskied shoulder line of good looking snow as we skinned up. Good choice as it turned out:

A late lunch in the sun below the Archeboc refuge, and we headed off down a nicely softened 'icy path of doom' and back to the car for a well-earned refreshment at the Monal...

Courchevel off piste conditions

A quick update on off piste conditions in Courchevel.

In a nutshell - "good, but rapidly getting heavy"

Yesterday we had 30/40cm of light fresh powder all over, but even by lunchtime sunny slopes were feeling the heat of the sun.
Today the foehn wind has gradually been picking up, with 5ºC at 1800m at lunchtime. North facing slopes are still fantastic, but anything that has seen some sun is heavier, with some aspects developing a light crust. The humidification of the snowpack will doubtless continue through the afternoon as well...

The Equinox face was in great shape today (so good I skied it twice) and hardly a soul had been into Les Avals, though it is worth now finding the shady slopes for the best skiing.

Reports also in of the Breche Portetta being skied in good conditions yesterday, with both entries in good shape...

Half term mayhem in Courchevel? Not really...

Steep coaching day 4

What better way to round off a week of steeps coaching in the Vanoise than a run down the North face of Bellecote.

Despite a delayed opening on the Bellecote telecabine (and a massive queue even for the ski school priority line) we had a great ski in Couloir Cairn, having first looked into a very loaded-looking Moyenne Face Nord and decided very quickly it wasn't on.

Andy P:

Jim:

Jon:

Some brave souls had ventured up to the Grande Face Nord and linked up (very cautiously) the traverses over to Grand Nant - looked like much clenching of buttocks had gone on judging by the ultra-cautious line & turns...

Meanwhile the Friolin slopes, Passage de Frete and Montagne de Bellecote runs were all seeing lots of traffic, as was the Petite Face Nord. Canadians couloir looked OK from below, but less soft than Cairn.

Off to La Grave next with a slightly challenging weather forecast... fingers crossed for some good snow!

The fun continues... off piste intro day 5

Day 5 of the Off Piste Introduction course today. Despite early flurries of snow the cloud gradually lifted through the day allowing us to put in a good run down to Le Raffort in slightly variable powder, followed by a good session in and around the Courchevel couloirs.

Rocher de L'Ombre:

Entry to Emile Allais a bit rocky at the moment but fine if you pick a cautious line in:

Rich giving it some:

Ben styling it up:

Today was my first full day on the Carbonlite Ranger skis kindly provided by Whitedot Skis this winter. I am suitably impressed - having had a few hours skiing soft powder a week or two ago - today was an interesting test as in the morning we were travelling a bit slower, and despite reports that the Ranger CLs needed to be driven hard I found them very easy to ski at slow speeds too (perhaps symptomatic of the general skiing public's inability to properly steer/smear a turn these days). A full report will follow shortly - I will be interested to compare to my old favourites the Volkl Gotamas tomorrow...

Off piste conditions update - Courchevel 5 Jan 2013

A quick update on conditions around Courchevel and the Vanoise currently:

On Saturday it was mild and wet, with rain up to about 2000m, but snow falling above this. By this morning the trees were white down to St Bon (~1000m). I had a couple of hours in hand and headed for my old stomping ground of Courchevel 1650 to test out my new work-tools compliments of Whitedot Skis :

Review to follow...

Snow conditions were good in the 1800 - 2100m bracket with ~20cm of light powder, above that the snow was still good, but with evidence of wind during the fall - lots of 'duning' visible (not to mention soft snow slides on almost every aspect):

Around 2300m pretty much everything had fallen off during the morning's PIDA blasting - though there was still some takers for the bits in-between!:

A good day for some mellow runs & meadow skipping:

High winds were visible on the crests, and although the avalanche risk forecast has dropped from 4 to 3 care will still need to be taken on steeper slopes as there is a persistant weak layer lurking from the early winter. Additionally the snowpack remains thin, and there are definitely plenty of rocks just under the surface, particularly near ridges and any convexities where the wind has worked the snow a bit.

The scenery is still good though:

Around the Vanoise friends reported wind-affected powder up above the Refuge de la Vanoise, Val Thorens & Orelle reportedly even more wind-affected than Courchevel, and a ski instructor and his client had a lucky escape in an avalanche incident in La Plagne (Les Bourtes area) losing nothing more than their equipment fortunately.

Current advice - keep it mellow, and watch out for (invisible) rocks!