Another Thursday, another ski outing. And what an outing it was!
Whilst I’m sympathetic to those of you with understandable excuses for a no-show, the rest of you really did miss out on an absolute humdinger of a day. The chosen venue was Glacier 3000, because your humble correspondent was staying with his brother-in-law, David, in nearby Les Diablerets and 50cm of new snow had fallen at altitude in the previous 24 hours.
The two of us headed up to the Col du Pillon to rendezvous with Stephen (Langton) and catch the 9am cable-car. Stephen was driving up from St Cergue that morning and was delayed by the usual motorway traffic and roadworks on the mountain road above Aigle . We couldn’t wait to get up close and personal with the acres of fresh powder on the glacier so decided to meet up later on the mountain.
Without doubt these were the best skiing conditions so far this season – and indeed for several seasons. The gentle runs at the top had just been lightly groomed and it was like skiing on silk. Those with steeper gradients were untouched, giving endless possibilities of skiing in deep, light powder. It was a thrilling and all-too-infrequent experience and perfect to build one’s confidence in off-piste skiing.
The weather that day, which had initiated an early start to the GIN biking season, was sensational in the mountains. There were breath-taking views in every direction from the 3000m summit at the Scex Rouge where we even decided to forgo our skis for a short climb up to the celebrated Peak to Peak walkway. David just about conquered his fear of heights to cross the 110m “floating bridge” and live to tell the tale. A welcome coffee stop was taken on the other side of the glacier at a favourite of the writer’s, Refuge de l’Espace, which is situated beside the Quille du Diable, an impressive column of rock towering out of the snow and ice and overlooking a 1500m sheer drop to the ruined hamlet of Derborence (familiar to some of the GIN hikers and immortalised in C.F.Ramuz’s novel of the same name) and the Rhone valley 1000m below that.
After another couple of hours skiing our legs off we treated ourselves to Boxer beers and croutes at the Cabane des Diablerets, where the large resident dog was frolicking outside in the deep snow and dazzling sunshine, wearing a pair of goggles. Doggles?
After lunch it was more of the same until we were ready to descend to the cars. We wisely decided against taking, at the end of the day, the recently opened tunnel bored through the cliff which opens onto a seemingly near vertical un-pisted descent of 1000m to the bottom station of the téléphérique. Younger, fitter legs definitely required.
Again, the return journey was not entirely traffic-free, with roadworks and the usual congestion between Lausanne and Morges – the only negative to a truly splendid ski day. More of the same please.
Next outing is provisionally scheduled for Thursday 21 March – DV&WP (Deo volente and weather permitting)
Bravo Dad! Thanks for writing this Merv! What a big beautiful!!!