Minimum altitude: 1,342 meters
Distance: 54 km
Slope Aspect: Various
Vertical Climbed: 6,817 meters (22,367 feet)
Vertical Descended: 6,817 meters
A plan so cunning you could stick a tail on it and call it a Renard. The totster had been up at the 7 laux a few days before and it was rammed with the New Year's crowd and I'd seen the same cross country skiing. However New Year's morning, when the holiday makers are still sleeping off their champagne and Dinde aux Marrons should be quiet. And so it was.
We managed a single Vallons run - this is the long freeride descent from the top of the slopes down to le Pleynet via a bit, wide valley. The entrance was huge moguls. Usually I shunt around these by skiing the very steep slopes at the entrance but didn't fancy the exposure today this early in the ski season. We're talking about a long fall on 40 degree slopes. Instead we skied across to a couloir with some fresh powder in it (spin drift) and skied down from there, avoiding the moguls.
Route finding in the vallons is always fun as there are some cliff bands you can ski over if you are not careful. I'm suprised the run exists really as it is quite extreme for a ski piste. Today the exit was heavily mogulled but at least there was good snow cover unlike last season.
Good snow in general. A few stones coming to the surface with the piste bashing. Roads clear.
