A little hike before the lifts open

After the great snow early in the week I received a few reports of amazing conditions on the mountain from people who had put in the effort and hiked to get in some turns. So today I decided to go and check it out before the lifts open at the weekend with a hike up the Grands Montets resort.

With a few friends we set off to ascend the home run or Pierre a ric with the hope of finding some good snow at mid mountain level. After an hour and a bit we reached the mid station 1972m where the Pisteurs were busy preparing for opening on Saturday 29th November. The groomers were hard at work preparing powder soft corduroy which was the case on every piste.

There was nobody else on the mountain except for the lift company staff so we kept hiking a little further up the mountain to a spot where we could access the dream forest. Here in the shelter of the trees the snow condition was fantastic with soft powder everywhere, it didn't take long for the whooping and hollering to start as our group descended further toward the valley.

The remainder of the run down was in one of the
couliors that run from mid mountain to the village level in Argentiere and this is where some of the best turns of the day were had. Everyone was charging the lines with only the odd touch of rock or branches.

After reaching the bottom we looked back into the couloir to see the lines we had just layed and how amazed we all were with the great conditions for this early in the year. Tomorrow its off back to the Grands Montets but this time the lifts will be open so there will be no need to hike for the lines.