The Rencontres du Cinema de Montagne in Grenoble have just flown past, and combined with work eaten up the week. Quick glimpses out of the lab showed an ever whiter Belledone looking down on Grenoble. So it was after a couple hours of sleep I was in the car at 6 a.m on a Sunday with a very enthusiastic J.B driving towards to Lautaret.

The arêtes of Combeynot play hide and seek with the clouds

J.B. Is ready for the action.

With half of Grenoble out today, the start was more like the Champs Elysees…

The beauty of Galibier-Lautaret starting to show itself.

After being told by a couple of other skiers that conditions were not good on the north faces, we set of towards the pic blanc du Galibier. With no real objective except enjoying the first taste of the snow we advanced through the fog. About halfway up the clouds cleared a bit so we decided to make the most of it and go down. Heavy snow and lack of practice meant I was soon really feeling my thighs burn. But all was good! We climbed back up and went down the other side, this time in the fog. A quick drink and we still had time to do another short climb. As we went up we were surrounded with tens of kite-skiers, gliding around the slopes. It looked so fun! I really must try it this year now that I have all the gear! Although there wasn’t much wind some of the riders where getting some spectacular jumps in. Leaving them behind we used muscle power to climb a bit higher before slicing the still virgin snow back to the car…

First Contact. First descent of the season!

Mo Bro’s

To change the face of men’s heath. Village People can now add a skier.

All in all not a bad start to the season: abundant snow and a good day out. I just hope it will stay this way as I have so many plans for this year!

To donate for Movember visit the official webpage here. What is Movember?