So how was Ski Tour #2? Well, words fail us!
Today we enjoyed a breathtaking tour with the head of our local guiding company - Christoph. He is a personal friend of Rick & Liz's. A mature fellow (ie, our age!!) - he was very much our kind of guide. Good sense of humour. Laid back but conservative and safety conscious - he was very much the "old" and not "bold" type of guide that we like!
Another superb sunny day with freezing overnight temperatures ensured that the snow remained light & dry. We headed west with Christoph from the top of Flaine - 2480m down into an area called the Desert de Plate. It is called this because underneath the snow it's a plateau comprised entirely of stratified rock. Unlike the alpine meadows of the other high mountain areas, it must truly resemble a desert in the summer when the snow has gone.
We headed down to the bottom of the valley, along with many other Frenchies who thought that today would be a good day to go ski touring. Fair enough! It was Saturday after all. But, that is the reality of Europe. People everywhere. However, the valley is huge and there's actually plenty of room for everyone. And of course the advantage of having a guide is that they know all the secret locations.
Christoph led us away from the people and back up again on the far western flank of the valley. From there we skinned and climbed up to a small peak - Pointe de la Ratelliere -2708m. Lunch was spent gazing out over the alps. The views from the top were incredible. To the South West, Mont Blanc and the Chamonix peaks dominated the skyline and to the west was Les Houches and in the distance Le Grave.
On the way up, we skinned through some amazing rock formations. It was like walking through a canyon or ice-seracs on a glacier. It was eerie and beautiful at the same time.
"The Rock Canyons"
And the skiing? The photo of Graeme putting in a nice set of tracks pretty much answers that question. Lovely frost dried, well consolidated, boot-top powder. Great fun to ski in!!
Inevitably, there are too many photos of today! For the enthusiast - click here.
After our second descent we continued down the plateau to Chalets de Sales. A collection of small farming chalets, it is abandoned in the winter except for a 72 year old fellow named Raymond. Christoph is a friend and regularly visits with him. Raymond refuses to leave the valley in the winter. There is no road access to this area and the walk from the nearest village Sixt-Fer-a Cheval is a hard one with a roped descent down through a steep icy gorge. Or a walk up & ski down to Flaine. The mind boggles how Raymond manages to get his supplies but apparantly he skins up and over into Flaine most days!!
Passing through Chalet de Sales, the plateau ends abruptly in a narrow gorge with a sheer cliff towards its end. As we travelled through the gorge we were privileged to see Chamois and the rare Alpine Ibex ( a long horned alpine goat) grazing the steep sided gorge far above us. Christoph has the eyes of an eagle and it sometimes took us an age to find the animal he was pointing to.
4/ The Frozen Cascade de Sales
At the end of the gorge, is a sheer cliff over which a waterfall tumbles 50m to a second terrace.
Hmmmm. Interesting! It's been a while since I have done an abseil. I certainly have never had to do one with my skis and poles attached. 48m doesn't sound very high, but when you are peering over the edge of a cliff, it is still a little daunting. Again a picture is worth a thousand words, so if you'd like to see Christoph and I repel down this ice cliff click here. Graeme has made some funny commentary, so it's definitely worth a look.
Following our little dabble in mountaineering, we continued down the gorge and the wooded forest to Sixt. We struggled to follow the nimble Christoph with his tight turns. I lost count of the number of times I had to use an emergency snow plough to avoid wrapping myself around a tree or hitting a big boulder in the frozen streams we were descending!
And in typical French fashion, our adventure ended with a beer in a little mountain cabin while we waited for the free resort bus to take us back to Les Carroz. How civilised!
It was a long day - 8:30pm - 7.30pm! Great value and we are well pleased to have made Christoph's acquaintance. We hope that we'll have a few more adventures with him along the way!!
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