Maurienne, what else?...

Last week was the 2019 edition of my regular stint running some steep-ski-oriented CPD coaching for IFMGA Mountain Guides Andy Perkins and Jim Kerr, along with non-guides Peter B and Jim S. We had 3 productive days in the Maurienne, not only from a coaching point of view, but also with increasingly good snow conditions!

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3:

Courchevel powder skiing

Last week I was working with my longest-standing group of clients - 15 years and counting. While the team are not necessarily up for gnarly skiing this often works to our advantage - on Tuesday, with blue skies and powder all around we stayed low on the easy meadow skiing and had the whoel area to ourselves for the morning while the usual bunfight was going on up high in 1850!

A bit of snow at last.

The big high pressure and associated blue skies have finally been pushed aside by some more unstable conditions and some fresh snow.
This week Ihave been skiing with Tim, John and Phil on our regular early Jan week. We started with some more technically-focussed days on chalky steepness, braved the blizzards on Wednesday, and were rewarded with some good powder on Thursday!

Milking the conditions

It hasn't snowed for quite some time now (since the high rain of 23/24 Dec), and on the whole conditions aren't great, but that doesn't mean there isn't still some fun snow to be found - as we discovered today with Steve & Val...

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!

Rescue training and pre-Xmas conditions

Yesterday I spent an informative day in La Clusaz talking snow & group management and also running through some rescue scenarios, with trainers from both ANENA (the French Snow & Avalanche research organisation) and also the PGHM (French Mountain Rescue/police). A very useful day - it was also nice to be back in an old stomping ground - La Clusaz was one of the main areas I learned to ski back in the early '80s... I have been meaning to fit in a day or two there for years, and am definitely keen to get back in the winter when there is more of a base down to re-familiarise myself with the many off piste possibilities!

Meanwhile back in the 3 Valleys we have had snow down to about 800m overnight, though it is now mild and getting a bit 'melty' - this should actually work to our advantage in terms of creating a denser base for future snowfalls to fall onto.
Here are a couple of pictures from last week: