Ice axe required....

...if you're skiing in the Espace Killy this week.

Today was cloudless, mostly windless and warm - 8 degrees at 2770m at lunchtime. Beautiful weather for hiking and biking, but it's destroying the pistes. And as for the off piste....is there any left? I haven't seen conditions this depleted since...oh, the last time I spent an extended period in the Alps, ten years ago. Hmmm.

So it was back to walking today, and a gentle skin up to the Col de l'Iseran, the highest paved road in the Alps. The windy road up to the top of the Fornet cable car was very pleasant, but the air currents rushing down the valley gave me a chill so I hopped in the bubble to get to the top. Here there was no wind at all - T-shirt weather - and I had lunch in blazing heat. After lunch I had a little ski on the glacier where the snow is usually very good, but even here it was thin and hard packed and icy.

There's a pretty chapel at the col, and a tourist shop which is closed in the winter. Picture of chapel or picture of me....picture of chapel or picture of me....oh go on then.