Le fin de la Saison

The ski season has finally come to a close in the Alps, with most areas closing last Sunday and only the few glacially high mega resorts such as Espace Killy (Val D'Isere and Tigne), Trois Valles, and Zermatt remaining open and even those only through the 8th of May. I only managed 14 days on the slopes due to the logistical difficulties of setting up our life in France. Having our skis arrive February 23rd in Paris didn't help much either. It was a rather successful season with regards to my must ski list, where I was able to check off five of my top eight areas and we may yet ski Zermatt which would make it 6 of 8.

The highlights: knee deep fresh powder tracks off the top of the Grand Montet in Chamonix (even with a wait of 1-hr 15min, the longest in my skiing career), knee deep powder off piste from the top of the Trois Vallees, and touring up the Argentiere Glacier in Chamonix. The best ski area? That depends on what you want. If you want the most on piste terrain, which means you don't need to ski with a beacon, shovel and probe, Trois Valles is without a doubt the best. Great snow, great variety, insanely big. Chamonix can't be beat for the scenery, imagine the Grand Canyon but with an alpine setting, and the Grand Montet at Chamonix has a solid 3000 feet of steep vertical that you ski for every run. If you crave off piste skiing and touring the Espace Killy can't be beat and the lift system is so good that even during the French school holidays in February there are NO LINES! That same lift system lets you rip up serious amounts of vertical if you choose to ski the groomed runs as I did on my last day there, racking up over 25,000 vertical even-though I was off the mountain by 3pm.

Alas the lifts close and the snow melts and it must come to an end. The picture here shows Steph coming down from our tour at Pralagnon la Vanoise, a spectacular town set deep in the Vanoise Mountains of Savoie. We skinned up under the ski lifts which had closed the day before and on into the backcountry up to the the Col de Vanoise set at the foot of the highest peak in Savoie. We were down by 2pm, skiing out the piste that had been groomed the night before for the last time, then basked in the sun of the warm spring afternoon.

You can be here for the next go round. Come join us in the Alps. It starts up again in late November and will finish again in the warm sun of late April. You know how to reach us....

CM

a Savoie, France