All aboard the Solaise Express

After a hard morning of walking and skiing, it is a pleasure to catch the Solaise Express chair lift down the mountain. The view is of Val d'Isere, nestled in the Isere valley between the slopes of the Rocher de Bellevard on the left, and La Tsantelaina and Le Dome on the right. These latter slopes are southerly facing and you can tell by how bare they are just how little snow there is around these parts. Beyond Val d'Isere is the Tignes dam and Lac du Chevril (from yesterday's photo).

Today we skinned up to the Col des Fours, a delightful hike of around 90 minutes, from the Pont de Neige on the D902 road, which then snakes its way to Bonneval-sur-Arc. Despite the cold it was a comfortable walk (thanks to my brilliant Rab gear), and the only tricky part was the final traverse across to the col. The track here was thin, hard and icy in places, and a fall would not have been pleasant. Couteaux were a must.

You can see Jean Ribart's pictures of the morning here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jean.ribart/20102011ValPhotosOfTheDay#

The snow was generally good and we had a great ski down to the Refuge du Fond des Fours. It was nice to make some turns in powder after skiing the piste for the last ten days. From the refuge it was a humpy bumpy icy roller coaster ride down to the Manchet Express.