Season Diary - Day 26

Monday 17th March, 2025 - Val d'Isére, France

Guest written by Sam Percival

Today was a rather relaxed day skiing, following yesterday’s powder. We had clear blue skies from the off and not too much warmth, a lovely rarity this late in the season.

We did a couple of warm-up runs down to La Daille before progressing to the meat of the day, a jaunt down the infamous Tour de Charvet. We had given it until about 10:30 to head over that way as we wanted the crust to have slightly softened but to avoid the slush and avalanches common after midday. We had a mixed run down, with the snow conditions varying from ice to crust to spring snow to powder to slush in the space of a minute, but regardless, it was much more pleasant than the thronging pistes of Bellevarde.

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After making it out of Charvet through the beautiful Manchet Gorge, we decided that this was a morning for off-piste bowls, so we quickly headed to Cugnai. We took an initial route down that was of mixed quality, with some beautiful snow and some subpar stuff. Henry decided to try and ski half of this on one ski after a poorly timed shenanigan, which led to the need for a goalkeeper-style save of his ski that had made a break for freedom approximately 100m below him.

Nonetheless, we persevered and decided to attempt a second Cugnai, as we felt we knew where the ideal spots for pow-pow were and also where to avoid. Whilst being modest, we did absolutely smash the second run down, finding fresh tracks and a lovely couloir to devour, before taking the cat track out the bottom. Come lunch, we were fairly content to mellow in the sun with some well-deserved beveraginos.

After lunch, and Henry doing some god-tier faffing with his new skis, we decided to stick on piste on Solaise after some Negronis. We quickly discovered that the Espace Killy clientele do not take kindly to songs in the round or call-and-answer over the up-and-over to Fornet, excluding children who loved "Sweet Caroline." We managed to ski down to Vallon, up to the top of the glacier, and back across to Solaise, lapping it for good measure before descending upon the Temple of Cococs (Cocoricos for the uninitiated).

Safe to say, the rest of the night descended in a beautiful, divine blur of beers, music, and fondue. All in all, a top-class day in the French Alps.