Back from La Grave

So we headed of to La Grave on Friday, the van was packed and we were all excited about skiing the famous place that is La Grave. We left a little bit earlier than needed so that we could stop off at the Col De Lauteret and have a go at kite skiing, unfortunately there was not a massive amount of wind, but enough for Lara to have a go and get the grips of it. One of my heros was there, the world champion called Chasta and he was amazing to watch in action. I was no where near his skills, but we still had a great afternoon playing.DAY 1: On Saturday we met up with our guide for the next 6 days , a french man called Abdou (born in africa) who was to drag us up and around the mountains. We also had another couple on the same trip as us, called Lydia and Joe, both great company and fun to be with.

So on the first day we went up the La Grave and skiied around on the glacier for Abdou to see how we fared, then in the afternoon we went down the 'Couloir De Orciere' a megre 40 degree couloir which was to break us in nicely! (no pictures as I was in shock!)

DAY 2: today we went touring, we started from the main road from the Col de Lauteret to Briancon about 7km east of the col.

This was a a great climb, in the shade is was rather cold but as we broke out into the sun it was lovely and warm and made Dave sweet like a #!@#... below is Lara getting nearer to the top of the Col de Chardonnet our high point of the day with L&J closley following behind

From the top we had great views of the Ecrin

Was great to finally stop going up and get some rest going down hill. But little rest was to be had as neither Lara or I have had much experience skiing in spring snow, but we soon got the hang of it and had a fantastic descent into the valley, below is Lara working out the spring snow

So after a long day, we finally got to the evenings destination the 'Refuge de Chardonnet'

This was the most luxurious refuge I have ever been to, it had flushing toilets and even a hot shower!!!! After a great meal and a good night sleep (no loud snoring germans) we woke up ready for the next day....

DAY 3: a rather leisurely start for a refuge as it is still fairly early touring season so we set off at 8:30am and had an 800m climb right out of the back door. Below is Abdou and Dave climbing up

Was a fairly easy climb apart from the top with quite a steep icy bit, where both Lara and I learnt a little more about using the crampons for the touring bindings. After a bit we were both fine and less nervous about sliding all the way down to the refuge again - if we had slipped. Due to no sun being on the slope we were climbing (north facing) the snow was rock hard.

Once at the top we had a great couloir to ski down with more amazing views over the Ecrin, below is Lara on the descent.

From the bottom we just had one more small climb (400m) up a col that was directly in the sun, I don't think I have toured in such heat, by the time I got to the top I was again sweating chronically, even Lara was sweating and we all know ladies don't sweat so you can imagine how hot it was..... below, me near the top of the col.
Again this was followed by some more great skiing down some even better spring snow, we really were being spoilt!

DAY 4: Today was to be a rest (ish) day with little climbing. So we went to Alp D'Huez just down the road from La Grave and took the lifts up to Pic Blanc (start of the Mega Avalanche for those who know) and ducked under a fenced and put our skies on our backs and climbed for 30 minutes up to a col. Abdou then proceeded to tell us to side slip down this steep slope as 'it iz fery daangerus if you be slipping downer the slop' so we side slid down it slowly and as we got to the bottom we see this huge cliff below where we had been slipping down..... thanks Abdou.

From here we had a 1200m decent on amazing spring all the way down to a small village

We had some amazing food at this Gite. I stupidly gave into peer pressure and drank the Genepi aperitif that they gave us afterwards and promptly ended up in this state...

Once they had taken pictures of me and ridiculed me to all the local french there who thought the english soft... (I am sorry for letting my country down) we got a taxi back up a little further and skied down to the cars.

DAY 5: We got up early and met Abdouo at Serre Chevalier. We got the chairlift right to the top ducked under a fence and came face to face with a small ledge that was just big enough to get both skis on. 'Wat iz ze problem, just push yourzelf along' said our guide, who obviously does this everyday. So after a few momets of trembling and MTFU'ing we get ourselves across with no issues. This then turns into a carry along a ridge

Another steep little descent and then a traverse to the bottom of Glacier de Seguret Foran,

From here it was time to put the skins on and climb for 1000m to the top, this was a long climb up a glacier having to keep our distance in between us not to over weight any snow bridges. After about 3 hours with many stops we finally got to the top. Here we had lunch and looked down our descent. A 1600m couloir. The descent was amazing and in spring snow it was hard work, but what a descent. Below me chasing after lara as she hammers down the snow (her in purple and me in Blue)

At the bottom we skied into Ailfoide, a town I had driven through last summer, the track we skied along was the summer road and it was very surreal sking along a path with give way signs and road and village signs as you pass through them.

Day 6: Woke up rather tired and only one day left, Lara was tired. I was tired, but she looked worse!

Today we took the lift up La Grave and skied a rather cool couloir down to Vallon De la Selle, there was not a great deal of snow in the couloir but it was a great descent none the less
At the bottom we arrive at a small village called St Christophe-en-Oisans, where we had an amazing lunch and then got a bus back to Les Deuz Alps and skied back down the valley towards La Grave, this descent we managed to find some powder snow and had a great descent. Me having some fun in the powder



Lara having some fun in the Powder:

The only really horrible bit to this decent was the last narrow bit that had obviously avalanched heavily some weeks before and had frozen into tennis ball sized lumps of ice. An interesting experience that can only add to ones skiing book of 'ticks'





So all in all we had a fantastic 6 days, had some great views, descents, meals, climbs, some interesting moments and met some really great people. We now have a few days of rest to try and make our legs not ache and get ready to go to switzerland. Thank you La Grave and Abdou for shwoing us around!