Season Diary - Day 27

Tuesday 18th March 2025 - Val d'Isere, France

I dont think I've skied a more varied ski day than today. It featured a little bit of everything, from piste and powder to touring and racing.

We set off for the Col des Fours, a short but sharp ski tour off the Col des Iseran that we have done a couple of times in the past few years. It's one we really enjoy, despite a few hairy moments, explaining why we come back to it time after time.

But as we travelled up the Vallon gondola we suddenly became aware of how socked in the cloud was. We couldn't see a thing more than thirty yards in front of us, so the sensible voices in all of us called the tour off as we got to the top.

We paused for about twenty minutes to let the cloud clear and see if our chances improved and, bit by bit, it indeed began to clear up - only on the east side of the valley however, leaving the Col still under a bank of cloud.

Instead we pushed up to the top of the Pisaillas Glacier. Giving our legs a chance to warm up after being sat waiting for the cloud to clear, we pounded down the pistes and enjoyed beautiful, cold, grippy snow from top to bottom. This was one of the piste runs of the trip so far.

Turning right at the top of the T-Bar, you arrive in Pays Desert - deserted country. This is one of the great off piste areas of Val d'Isere, a great white wilderness where you can pick your line and ski untouched powder back to a lift.

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Our traverse across had inspired several conversations about snow, the snow pack, and avalanche risk. Several recent avalanches and the decisions of people crossing dangerous terrain were the key subject, as we discussed, in particular, how to score the best, safest snow.

This was critical as the sun, temperatures and wind had created a crust on all aspects other than north facing slopes. Therefore we had to try really hard to find north facing slopes, otherwise we would be faced with skiing some of the most awful crusty conditions we had ever seen.

But boy did we find the good stuff. Staying true to this mantra, we skied top to bottom powder the whole way, occasionally skinning up a gently slope to get on top of the good lines. And at the bottom? We skinned half an hour back to the Pays Desert lift to get back to town.

The afternoon promised slalom training. Want to know how that got on? Check back tomorrow for a full breakdown of race training.