Better than the Last: Following tracks...

Fri 7th: Had work in the morning to arranged to ski the afternoon with Charlie and Liam. Vis was awful so we went for our first lap off Plan d'Aiguille. Chatted to a few people before we went up to get an idea of the route as none of us had skied it before. Told to follow tracks under the cables then cut off left.

So we made the huge faux pas and followed the tracks of one of the three groups ahead. First pitch was unbelievably good. Really deep and soft snow. So, so good. Maybe the best so far this season. After a few more pitches we hit the trees. Turned out we'd followed the wrong tracks as they hadn't cut as far left as we'd meant to. They also clearly knew the terrain well. Oops.

After an awesome pillow line we ended up in really steep narrow trees mixed with couloirs and dead ends. Parts of it were really nasty going (mainly because we had no idea where we were going). Traversed through / down a few 45+ degree completely bare patches. As we descended the snow was getting heavier and heavier making skiing more and more tiring. Eventually the route 'mellowed' out into a larger couloir, then into another which had been tracked much more. Finally we hit one of the walking paths. Phew.

The last bit down to the main path was just rock so Charlie, who wasn't bothered about his bases, half walked down it. Liam and I decided it was a good time to practice our rope work. I, in particular, was rusty having only had a three day crash course in mountaineering and a summer sport climbing. We rigged up an abseil to a tree and dropped down to the path. I clambered back up quickly for a second go. Definitely good practice and fun.

We finally made it down about 5pm, knackered. We were a full hour and a half late as we'd planned on doing a second run. Oh well. We'd gotten down safely and it had been a good adventure. Definitely a big lesson in being prepared and not blindly following tracks.

Also I feel I should mention that I was really impressed with Liam, who made it down with no fuss despite having far less skiing experience than the two of us. Well played sir. Big balls.