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!

Steep coaching - days 2 & 3

The weather hasn't really played ball the last couple of days, with flat light and high wind at altitude putting a stop to any bigger plans we had. There is always a plan B though, and we have spent a couple of days mixing up technical coaching with some 'boundary-pushing' on slightly gentler terrain. All good clean fun and the team's skiing is coming on every day!

A few rays on sunlight on Wednesday morning:

Taking to the air today:

Conditions off piste remain good - soft snow pretty much everywhere, though care is still needed in choosing reasonable terrain to play on...

Steep Coaching - day 1

La Plagne delivers!

First of 4 days steep ski coaching for IFMGA Guides Andy & Jon & their mates Jim & Pete - great conditions, if slightly spicy... careful route choice & group management needed, but the snow was well worth it!

Pete:

Jon:

Pete again:

Jim:

Andy:

A happy team!

Conditions are good currently, though lots of slab & sluff action observed, and the Bellecote bubble & associated lifts remained shut all day (probably quite wisely). Care is needed on any steeper slopes as some soft slab remains on the surface with enough volume to do some damage judging by the debris piles we saw today!

Val D'Anniviers - Off Piste coaching (cont.)

The Val D'Anniviers came up with the goods again!

Alex styling it up:

The last time I was here was 7 years ago, with very similar snow conditions to this year, but once again Grimentz and Zinal did not disappoint.

With a couple of small snowfalls but reasonable visibility through the week our Off Piste Improvers coaching course was topped off by 40cm of powder and blue skies on Friday (albeit with -17C temperatures and a biting wind!).

Peter puts his new skills into action:

Peter, Alex, Paul, Chas, Phil and Steve all made great progress through the week, and we ticked off a couple of classic descents on the way, with great snow all the way to the Moiry Dam from Zinal and perfect powder down the Orzival valley.

The Weisshorn watching over our skiing:

Cool tree on the exit from Orzival:

A word on conditions:
Much caution is still needed as shady slopes still have the weak depth hoar and buried surface hoar layers from early in the season. Additionally Thursday night's snowfall came with wind first from the North, then swinging round to West/South-West. On Friday many small slabs and sluffs were evident, some natural, some skier/boarder-triggered, and lots had gone with the morning's avalanche control work (they were still throwing charges into places at 3pm!). Grimentz being a bit of a rock garden some care is still needed as many rocks are only just buried, though the classic routes and gully lines are starting to fill in well.

Somebody got a fright on Friday!:

The new cable car linking Grimentz to Zinal was still under testing last week, though allegedly was going to open yesterday - shame about the current state of the architecture - harking back to the best days of French concrete block construction - one assumes (hopes) some cladding will be coming shortly!

Some more powdery shots - Friday was just incredible - even at 3pm we were putting first tracks into completely untouched bowls - the beauty of Grimentz early season is that there is lots of safe terrain (sub-30º) and very few people chasing the powder turns!

Hopefully it won't be another 7 years before I am back again...

Now its time for a couple of days off with the family, then back to work on Tuesday with a couple of IFMGA Mountain Guides and their friends for some steep coaching... bring it on!

Off Piste Improvers Grimentz/Zinal

Happy days here in the Val D'Anniviers on the Off Piste Improvers course - challenging conditions and wind-affected snow in Grimentz but Zinal today was fantastic, topped off with a great run down to the Moiry Dam.

Off Piste Introduction day 6

Last day of the Off Piste Introduction course today, run by offpisteskiing.com and Jagged Globe.

Words probably won't do the day justice so best to sum it up with 2 pictures...

Thanks to Aiko, Ben, Rich, Nick and Jack for an entertaining week - the banter was as good as the skiing progression!

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...