Fighting the queues at GM

Mon 5th: Missed the early bus as I'd forgotten my backpack, skills. No worries, Arvid and Oscar were late too. Arvid had even tried to go to Les Houches. Got the 8:20 so arrived to a big-ish queue at GM. The others were pushing for Plan Joran but I flat out refused after yesterday's farce. Lucky I did as they never opened... We made the third or fourth bin.

We got up to find everyone in front was in the top bin queue. Oh well. I guess it really is the only thing in condition at the moment with the lack of snow. We reserved the first available (12:55pm) and queued up. Eventually we got up and discussed options. I chose first - the face. We made our way down carefully knowing that the snowbridges are pretty thin at the moment. The conditions were good but the mid section had sections of bulletproof interspersed between wind affected powder which looked identical. The bowls below were awesome - untouched. Even Canadian bowl had an edge of powder thanks to the wind. We were all pleasantly surprised with the conditions.

After a long second queue it was Oscar's turn to choose. We dropped left and made for the col, hugging the rognon instead of going over. The snow higher up was much better than the front. As we descended it got really patchy, the complete inverse to our first run. Had some fun dodging through people in narrow couloirs and made our way down.

We had an hour before our reservation so we took a glance at Lavancher. Easily as good as yesterday and still snow to be had. Quick lunch then back up. Arvid decided on the face again. It was by far the best run. The wind had covered both our tracks and the icy sections. Same for the bowls below. Shouts of delight and long pitches without stopping. Arvid's "best of the season so far" although he's been a bit unlucky. So good that we decided we couldn't stop without one last one...

Same again. Didn't live up to the third lap but pretyy close. Got down to mid station with legs burning and flew down Pierre a Ric with little to no control (it had refrozen from the day before's slush). Fantastic day and snow with the good company helping with the long queues.