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It was another alternate Thursday for Joe to continue his training in the art of retirement from the indomitable Mervyn. Although we suffered through the traffic at the Nyon exit of the Autoroute, we made it to Samoëns just after 10 and were at the top of the Grand Massif Express by 10:30, ready for what would still be a full day’s skiing.

The promise of nice weather and good snow was accurate…especially at the higher elevations in Flaine. It was another beautiful day in the mountains, with close-up views of Mont Blanc demanding our attention, even for the occasional high-risk photo op.

As with our earlier outings, we explored most of the area and attacked pistes of all colors. One of us did so quite smoothly, while yours truly inelegantly navigated deep moguls on a steep black run below the 2561 meter peak of Tete des Lindars…but lived to tell the tale. Confidence was built as the day went on…

Surprisingly, the good weather seemed to have led many lift-pass-paying skiers to take a day off from school or work to join us in the mountains, resulting in the occasional queueing. But the crowds thinned out during lunch time while we continued till 2pm before taking a break for an outdoor lunch.

It continued to be all downhill after lunch, and we gradually made our way back from Flaine through parts of Les Carroz and finally back to where we started by 4pm, with the snow becoming a bit slushier as we descended. We stopped for a well-earned beer in the picturesque village of Samoëns.

The return home was very smooth, and we have more evidence that rush hour on the autoroute in Geneva is considerably easier than the crawl of Lausanne-Morges. It seems the only way we can solve our traffic struggles will be to combine heading east in the morning with heading west in the evening.

In any event, all routes so far this season have led to fantastic ski days…looking forward to more of these to encourage my transition to retirement.

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)

Well, for once this season the weather forecast indeed turned out to be both positive and accurate.

Encouraged by the promise of a grand beau I cheekily proposed a ski day on what had already been declared a snow-shoe outing, albeit with no snow. However, none of the skiing members of the snow-shoers could be persuaded to change their allegiance, preferring a meander on Mont Mussy to a day’s piste bashing in the Valais.

So it was only the two faithful stalwarts, Joe and Mervyn, who set off bright and early and headed for Veysonnaz, one of the satellite ski stations in the huge 4 Vallées domain. We arrived without incident and were ticketed and booted and on skis by 10am. Cloudless skies above and a good depth of snow underfoot greeted us. The 360° views were magnificent and even the distant Matterhorn showed itself.

Being so youthful, Joe had to pay full whack for his lift pass so we decided to get his money’s worth by exploring as much of the area as possible. Oldies like me and Portes du Soleil season ticket holders go free! After a quick sampling of the Thyon runs we headed, direction Verbier, to Siviez, Tortin and Nendaz. Lunch was taken on a sunny terrace above Siviez to fortify us for the return journey to Veysonnaz. There we enjoyed the perfectly groomed and empty black runs of Etherolla and the celebrated Piste de l’Ours (twice) before descending down to the village via a much anticipated vin chaud/beer stop.

The return journey was not entirely traffic-free, with the usual heavy evening traffic between Lausanne and Morges – the only negative to an otherwise splendid Leap Day ski day.

Next outing is provisionally scheduled for Thursday 7 March – DV&WP (Deo volente and weather permitting)

Here is the blog of the ski day that never was!

Despite the change of date of this week’s ski outing which was probably wise weatherwise, it was nevertheless unsuccessful in attracting a quorum, nay, even a single participant to sign up.

There were a number of apologies for absence proffered, mostly of an orthopaedic nature, but I suspect the perception of the prevailing skiing conditions – poor snow and potentially crowded pistes – also contributed.

Perhaps also the purpose of these ski outing should be clarified. We are no longer (if ever?) a group of thrill-seeking, dare-devil powder hounds, who are impatient to get the first cable car, think lunch is a Mars bar on a chairlift and ski until the pisteurs clear the slopes. No, we are pleasure-seeking, mountain-loving, epicureans who just enjoy doing it at a high-level and where the uphill effort element is largely removed from the equation. Hikers and snow-shoers take note! Sounds to me like the criteria for a perfect day out with good company.

Next outing is provisionally scheduled for Thursday 22 February. Let’s see what the weather gods will have conspired to provide by then.

Disgruntled from Commugny.