By this year we were becoming more proficient on the piste and parallel turns were now our main form of turning, rather than the stem turn, however when the going got difficult then inevitably we would revert to the stem turn, and when it got heavy then the snow plough turn would be brought out of the locker.
To get better at this then we needed to practice, especially with a ruck sac on. To this end our days on the slopes had changed from working mainly on the piste with an occasional venture into the "unprepared" areas, and had become a series of routes from the top to the bottom using as little of the piste as possible.We had found out that there was no two days the same and the state of the snow was continually changing, and we needed to experience and recognise the snow and then match with the techniques we had in our kit bag now to get the most effective way of getting down the slopes.
Le Tour was great for this with big open slopes, with a number of "obstacles" but especially a number of gulleys fantastically graded from simple to difficult.This trip followed the usual pattern where we started off at Le Tour, and a shake out session covering most of the slopes and all the gulleys
We ended up getting chased off the slopes by the pisteurs, and snow patrol, as we went for one last gulley down to the bottom.