La Legette du Mirantin, France

First team expedition of the year and we had a huge turn out ...  M-J, Chris, Dom, KT, Steph and myself. Bryon went off with Toby to do some father/ son bonding, but I guess really to show him he was still in front. Basically all Toby needed now was time on the mountain to then be ready for the next steps.

The plan was to head off from Le Plannay up towards the shoulder of the Legette .. a very popular randonee route in this valley, and by now well tracked and hopefully avalanche risk low.

We parked the cars in the top car park - we were early enough to get a slot - and walked around on the road up tot he hamlet of les Drays.

Here we put the skins on and the initiation for those new this year started ...  we followed a well beaten path that zigzagged up the open pasture between two wooded areas.

This being the first experience for all this year, new gear and new techniques for some, we actually made some good progress and a fairly steady rhythm. There were a couple of natural breaks as we crossed the road in places.

The new starters were quick into the uphill kick turns as these were needed on the steep final sections to the col at the top.

Reaching the col, we joined up with the track up from Areches, and this then disappeared up a nasty looking section through the woods to the ridge ... happy with where we had got and also conscious of the time - it being past noon, we stopped for a bite to eat.

Stripping the skins off ready for the descent ... now for the next challenge for the newcomers ... skiing back down.

The snow was powdery with lots of debris from previous descents piled up all around. For the experienced this was not too much of  a problem, but both KT and Dom (each with exchanged skis for the trip) were struggling to get to grips with the descent in different ways .. KT's skies were much longer and straighter than her normal ones and frustrated her turns. Dom's were less surface area and so rode lower sunk into the snow, but rather more important had not been waxed for years and so did not slip on the snow well ... the descent turned into survival skiing for them.

Everyone came though it though and we were back at the cars in the early afternoon, ready for  a cup of tea.

I definitely need to go back and make it up the ridge  ...  so another year.

Trip Track