Les Saisies, France

Another fine day in prospect, the blue skies were visible through the skylights in the apartment.

We chose to go to Les Saisies, up from Hautleuce. We had been here last year, and planned to have a very similar day.

Sue and Dom wanted to have a day doing other things, so the remaining five of us headed off to the road side parking by the Hauteleuce chair lift.

We bought a pass for the Les Saisies area, rather than the larger Diamant area. then up the chair, and straight onto the second one to the peak meeting point for all the lifts.

As it was still a little early we went down towards the Les Saisies area .. it was a very icy run and ended in a big queue. Back up to the peak, we were a little lower than we needed to be so we dropped down the sunny side to the second lift we had taken on the way up.

Back up at the peak we started over towards the top called Douce. This was down and up and down and up. On the top of Douce there was a black run that went down to the valley, and ended at a bus stop. Checking the timetable we had an hour to get down ..  should be fine I thought! We set off on the gentle descent to the top of the combe off the ridge. The take off was identified by a house.

Over the lip we dropped into the first bowl .. the powder was soft and we had a great time carving new tracks down slightly right of the main drag.

Towards the bottom we cut back left into the gulley exit, through some bushes.

From here the going got harder ... the next bowl was wetter and the powder had transformed into porridge.

The section after was a zigzag track down the hillside, but the porridge like snow made it difficult  to stay in control (apart from KT who seemed to remain sane).

I was really suffering with the boots again .. still not correct, and more alterations needed. The final bowls and down through the farms was a nightmare in the heavy snow, and we all got slower. 

As we crossed the second of two tarmac roads we saw the bus just going past ..  missed by five minutes.. We were not the only ones and two parties behind were similarly caught out. We did get the prime seats in the shelter, and prepared for the hour and a half wait to the next bus.

After 45 mins a bus going in the other direction came along and a brief discussion we all got on for a drink at the end of the valley reverse side of Les Contamines. This gave us a great view of the descent as we sat in the sun enjoying the afternoon.

Then back on the bus for the journey back to the cars ... a hard route, because of the state of the snow, and it showed how we could cope with the harder routes.