First day, and we headed to Verbier for some skiing practice.... We had explored this a few years ago and then had come back last year on our way to the Dix hut.
The day was very cloudy as we headed out of L'Union for the car park at the bottom of the hill at Le Chable... our investigations had found that car parking in Verbier was really expensive, but at the bottom it was part of the lift price.
Taking the lift system up all the way to Col des Gentianes underneath Mont Fort - 4 lifts and much shuffling around. At the top we got ready as the clouds rolled in. I was concerned that the day may be turning for the worse, and wanted to get on with things... We headed down a gentle red run, I had my eyes on the off-piste route down to Tortin to do it before the weather turned. Navigation was eased by the occasional pole, but there were ski track everywhere ... not a good indicator of the way to go.
I suspect that this was a bit too much too soon, as we were soon struggling with the conditions and the quite heavy snow.However after a while we were back in the swing and enjoying the situation.
As we got down to the lift station at Tortin the clouds parted and the sun came through, and we got a great view of where we had come down.We then hopped over two ridges on the lifts before dropping down again to La Chaux, where we rode back up to the first high point. Bryon and I wanted to show Chris and M-J the Mont Fort refuge and the route over the col towards Rosablanche.
Back at the top the sun was still shining and we could see the high speed descent track from the top of Mont Fort. We then took the piste route down the lift we had just come up, and continued on to Les Ruinettes.
From here we rode the lift back down t the car.The day achieved its goal and we had blown the cobwebs away .. if I had an opportunity to wind the clock back I would have moved some of the routes around.
Back to L'Union for a rest and some dinner... half board is a real luxury!