Le Laus, a little village with a restaurant and gite was where the ploughed section of the road ended. Time to get out and walk for a bit.
We followed the road until the snow coverage became consistent and we put the skis on.
Taking every opportunity to cut the corners, we straightened the route up, even if it meant hoping over the barriers.
As the slope got a little steeper, the path cut up into the woods for a period, which ended in a steep barer section.
We ascended it with care, thinking about how it would be in descent. After this the route flattened out and we were back on the road.
There followed a long section alongside the river, there was almost a pisted track beside the road here where all the people coming down had packed the snow.
The next section kept close to the river, but cut straight up between the zigzags of the road.
Then we were out onto the slopes leading to the col and the memorial.
Pausing at the memorial to Napoleon's crossing for a few photographs, and sheltering fro the wind blowing over the col before we stripped the skins off and prepared for the descent.
The descent was simple at the top where the slopes were open and the snow had a good firm base. We found some good bowl to drop into and find some good snow.
As we got lower, the skiing got more and more tricky, as the snow got softer and patchy, however were there were older tracks it had packed it down well enough to ski.
Back on the road it was visible that the snow was receding and it would not be long before the road was ploughed.We had managed a route on a day that would have been normally sent in the flat.