Winding down the season

Thurs 1st: Met Sparky and Steve 7:40am at the train station as no buses running. We got to GM to find a queue already there. Damn tourists. Same with the top bin. At the top we found that there hadn't been that much snow. Steve wasn't bothered about rushing so me and Sparky headed off, cutting off to the Argentiere glacier then dropping back onto the piste. The snow was great for one turn, OK for half of the way down then crap the rest of the way.

We got to the bottom and decided to head up for one more lap. Bumped into Lorne and Angus and had a chat. Got pushed past by some moody French woman who then got angry that I wouldn't let her friend past as well. Fat chance, I blocked her completely. We got up in the same bin anyway, shows how pointless the pushing was. Got up the top and decided to do the front face instead. It was definitely better and we cruised down quickly to some nice views then took the piste back down.

We bumped into Steve and called it, the snow wasn't good enough and everyone was tired anyway. Got back down and headed to the train; three hour gap. No chance, walked back alone to the car and tried to hitch. No dice. But a bus pulled up. Apparently the no.11 was still running. Winner.

In the afternoon I headed up the Midi to do some altitude training. Ran up and walked down the 100 steps 10 times (pretty hard at 3800m) and then walked up and down another 10 times. Actually quite tiring.

Lugging this around training up the Midi

Sat 3rd: Headed up GM again with Steve. Got there early to another queue... what? We got the second bin by 3 people, crap. Took the chair instead then headed to top bin. Up pretty quickly to a complete white out. Started down Pylones and then cut into the bowl by the rognon. Powder was great but the visibility was really poor. The snow deteriorated by 2400 and we cut back onto the piste. Down again where I bumped into Rob from work. Went back up for another, dropping straight into the main face then traversing round to the same area. Snow still great, visibility even worse. Did one final lap and the visibility in the region of hand in front of face. Called it.

By far the best visibility of the day...

Spent the afternoon up the Midi just sitting around acclimatising. Found Petter up there. Chatted to Bird and the Midi crew who had been waiting for a weather window all day... Ouch. Gave them the water I'd packed for weight in my bag as they hadn't had any for over nine hours. They gave up by about 5pm and took the lift down. Poor bastards.