Dave, Alan and I decided to try a descent from the Le Tour ski area into Switzerland - called Les Jeurs. This is now much easier, with the Valorcine extension to the lift system, and much of where we went is now well tracked beside the piste. The others would spend the whole day within the ski area.
After a break for a bite to eat we made our way to the top of the ski area ... towards the top of the tête de Blame. From the top of the drag lift we put on the skins for the quick trip to the top of the tête de Balme.
From the top we headed down the back side ... there were plenty of tracks, and the snow was quite crisp .. riding the clean snow was good, but getting caught in the old tracks would cause difficulties, and take a deal of effort to get our with our limited techniques, of stem turn and hock-stop turn.
We were for ever checking the map and route description, trying to pick out landmarks, never quite sure we were on the right route ... we need not have worried, all routes pointed in the same direction... down towards the reservoir. .. Other years we would take the far more demanding routes to the right (east) of this, but for now this was quite demanding enough.As we got to the tree line the snow softened up and we could even make some approximations to parallel turns (really a mixture of the stem and hock-stop turns), and also as being closer to powder was kinder to our technique.
Before we continued we had a brief respite and a quick bite/ drink. Then it was on to the next section and the reservoir ... this is where the new intermediate station is located. From here (if we had known) we could drop down to Vallorcine, but the route description took us NE to a track, that descended to Chatelard. This track was very rutted and ever increasingly icy.
As we arrived at near the bottom, two pedestrians were walking up the track, slowly pulling into the side Alan, and I came to a halt. On the other hand Dave was travelling a little faster, stuck in the rutted tracks and ended up in a heap between Alan and myself, just in front of the two people. They duly said "Bonjour - Passports svp.!" They were border guards looking for the unprepared. This was the days before the single currency, and the Schengen agreement.. the borders were well policed. Fortunately we had thought to have our passports, otherwise it would be a long walk back to the Vallocine track!From here it was a walk down to the road, and after some hunting around, we found the railway station up the other side of the valley a little way ... in future we would cut back to France - it would be simpler.
The train ride back to Le Tour went very smoothly - later we would use public transport more as a mechanism for getting back to the car after multi day routes. Picking up the car we returned, tired but satisfied with a very productive day.
Sue, Jane and Lyn, went to Le Tour ... just to ride the lifts a bit.A final addition to the party - Mik - arrived by Train today - he had never been skiing before and was just recovering from an odd separation process, so it was good to see him.
