As I type this, my jaw hurts from laughing. Since 9:15 this morning, the smile hasn’t left my face. After snowy days, today cleared up nicely. That meant skiing in powder under the sun! After some consideration, we decided to head to my favorite one-lift wonder, Pelvoux in the French Ecrins. And it turned out to be a fantastic choice.
Enough snow?
In Vallouise and Pelvoux itself, the amount of snow was a bit disappointing. As always, there was a healthy dose of suspense about whether it would be as good as hoped. Even the first lift at Pelvoux didn’t have as much snow as expected. It was clear here, as it has been all winter, that it’s too warm. Yesterday’s snow had already settled quite a bit. Fortunately, from the second lift onwards, it was perfect! Here, it was immediately apparent: a thick layer of cold snow!
Powder all to ourselves
Quite a few ski tourers started climbing La Blanche. But today, we chose to simply use the lift for powder skiing. Touring is fun, but when you can glide through fresh and pristine powder without using your legs, it’s even better. And it really proved to be the right choice; we had the whole morning completely to ourselves. Not a single other off-piste skier on the slopes of Pelvoux. So, we calmly carved one line after another. No powder stress and a nice 50 cm of powder! A dream!
Getting warmer quickly
But it’s a warm winter, and it’s already March. So, it gets warmer quickly; even on the north-facing slopes, we felt at the end of the day that the snow was getting slightly heavier. Still excellent, but it’s clearly no longer mid-winter (was it ever this winter?). In the coming days, we’ll have to aim higher!
Lots of avalanche activity
Aiming higher will have to be done with the necessary caution. In recent days, there has been a lot of avalanche activity in the area. The strong winds, heavy snowfall, and fluctuating temperatures are to blame. But with the warm days and clear nights, I expect the slopes to stabilize relatively quickly. So, perhaps by the end of the week, we can ski some beautiful slopes!