Pic Blanc, France

 Another excellent day, so time to drag out the old favorite of Pic Blanc, Bryon and I would have preferred to do one of the peaks on the other side if the valley, but we were not yet fit enough. I was also worried about my knee doing some of the steep descents they would call for.

So parking in the lay-by just after the avalanche tunnel we set off up the lower east facing slopes, making our route up the wide open lower slopes below the col du Galibier.

Above us you could pick out the road as it cut across before disappearing into the upper pasture before the final zigzags to the col.

This trip we had cut up the valley left of where we went last time and picked up the road at the hairpin, before cutting up left to meet the previous route.

Now we followed where we had been before and kept a straight line into the upper bowls.

At this point I was really feeling my knee, despite all the ironmongery, so I elected to stay put whilst the others summited .. the thought of the top section was putting me off.

I am not sure if the break did me much good as I struggled to keep the knee moving, but eventually they re-joined me. We set off back down.

The initial sections are straight schusses with a couple of drops in nice spring snow. Then we were on the road ... we should have followed the old route...  this was too flat and too soft to keep up any speed and we ended up poleing a lot.




However once we dropped down off the road onto the Eastern slopes things got better and we could put in some turns.

Safely back at the van I was relieved that my knee ha come through the ordeal and was now confident I would not suffer too much effects for the rest of this tour.