Another brilliant forecast... blue skies and little wind. Encouraged by the day at Le Tour, we had chosen to extend our experience by doing a little tour from the ski resort of Flegeres ... we would follow the summer path from the top lift to the summer restaurant at Lac Blanc, and then cut straight down back to the pistes.
However to start off we (Alan, Dave, and myself), went with a dew of the others and spend the first part of the morning on some off-piste trails beside the main Index run (straight down between the zigzags), and the bowls off the central lift.
As the day wore on and before the sun got too hot and the snow too soft (remembering that this resort faces due South). We took a ride to the top of the Index chair lift and traversed around keeping as high as we could. The aim was to stay high and skirt around each of the ridges that fall down from the main Aiguilles Rouge ridge line.
Once we could make no further progress traversing, we put the skins on and continued following the trail made by previous people on the route.
As the route was generally flat, we had moments of descending as well as ascending. This reminded me of the first attempts at this with Brian earlier in the year. Alan was using some "inserts" in place of true touring bindings. these fit inside a normal downhill binding like a boot, but then have a second set of fixings on top that your boot fits into. this second set has the touring features. The draw back is that you are much higher off the snow, and from time to time that has an impact on stability (especially downhill with skins on).
Before too long we arrived at our destination ... closed for the winter, but a great place to pause, have a bit and a drink before the challenges of the route finding and descent.
The descent was relatively straight forward when you look back in hindsight on it, however at the time it was a series of bowls, where we were not exactly sure where we were, but confident we were not going to miss the end of the ski resort and end up fighting down to the valley base.
The snow had got really quite soft and heavy in places, and with our lack of technique I for one was really tired by the time we hit the piste. This would not be the first time I would feel fantastic when the snow under foot became pisted and everything got much easier, and you end up wondering why it was all so difficult!
I cannot really remember what happened after this, but I am sure that Dave would have argued to ski down the closed piste into the valley (it became an in-joke at the time). But nothing could take away from the great feeling of another key step on the road to being confident in our ability to go into the mountains on our own.
Sue, Lyn, and Jane, went to Les Plannards together with Mik on his first lessons.
However to start off we (Alan, Dave, and myself), went with a dew of the others and spend the first part of the morning on some off-piste trails beside the main Index run (straight down between the zigzags), and the bowls off the central lift.
As the day wore on and before the sun got too hot and the snow too soft (remembering that this resort faces due South). We took a ride to the top of the Index chair lift and traversed around keeping as high as we could. The aim was to stay high and skirt around each of the ridges that fall down from the main Aiguilles Rouge ridge line.
Once we could make no further progress traversing, we put the skins on and continued following the trail made by previous people on the route. 
As the route was generally flat, we had moments of descending as well as ascending. This reminded me of the first attempts at this with Brian earlier in the year. Alan was using some "inserts" in place of true touring bindings. these fit inside a normal downhill binding like a boot, but then have a second set of fixings on top that your boot fits into. this second set has the touring features. The draw back is that you are much higher off the snow, and from time to time that has an impact on stability (especially downhill with skins on).
Before too long we arrived at our destination ... closed for the winter, but a great place to pause, have a bit and a drink before the challenges of the route finding and descent.
The descent was relatively straight forward when you look back in hindsight on it, however at the time it was a series of bowls, where we were not exactly sure where we were, but confident we were not going to miss the end of the ski resort and end up fighting down to the valley base.The snow had got really quite soft and heavy in places, and with our lack of technique I for one was really tired by the time we hit the piste. This would not be the first time I would feel fantastic when the snow under foot became pisted and everything got much easier, and you end up wondering why it was all so difficult!
I cannot really remember what happened after this, but I am sure that Dave would have argued to ski down the closed piste into the valley (it became an in-joke at the time). But nothing could take away from the great feeling of another key step on the road to being confident in our ability to go into the mountains on our own.
