A listless crew headed up La Grave into weather predicted to be similar to the previous day at Serre Chevalier. But it was -10C at 10,500 feet, and more importantly clear blue sky with no wind.
So after a 2,600 vertical warmup(?) run through some dust over chalk/crust to the P2, Extremely Canadian had another adventure in store for us.
La Grave has a glacier poma going up to 11,600. From the top of that poma a 5 minute hike leads to a plateau where Les Deux Alpes' top surface lift is visible just west. On the backside facing south is a steep drop into a valley that drains 18km due west to the town of St. Christophe.
This direct line was burned off, so we skated and traversed west just past the Deux Alpes lift and then into a southwest facing bowl. The bowl had soft chalk up high, then a thin layer of powder over a frozen subsurface.
But as the pitch steepened the surface softened and eventually we regrouped at 9,100 feet at the top of the Rama Couloir. It was now a bit after noon and the Extremely Canadian guides had timed the run so the couloir was facing direct sun. So we had a perfectly softened surface, which was fortunate because the Rama Couloir is 1,700 vertical, average maybe 30 degrees and 15 feet wide with a couple of sections barely a ski length wide that had to be sideslipped.
After a short break at 7,400 we had a long icy traverse on the shady and icy side of the valley for about 10km and 1000 vertical. Then a cross to the sunny side, a few sketchy sections, cross the stream at a dam, and finally a 500 vertical hike down to St. Christophe, arriving 3:15PM.
Now of course another 4 course gourmet lunch and eventually a 45 minute bus back to La Grave.
So after a 2,600 vertical warmup(?) run through some dust over chalk/crust to the P2, Extremely Canadian had another adventure in store for us.
La Grave has a glacier poma going up to 11,600. From the top of that poma a 5 minute hike leads to a plateau where Les Deux Alpes' top surface lift is visible just west. On the backside facing south is a steep drop into a valley that drains 18km due west to the town of St. Christophe.
This direct line was burned off, so we skated and traversed west just past the Deux Alpes lift and then into a southwest facing bowl. The bowl had soft chalk up high, then a thin layer of powder over a frozen subsurface.
But as the pitch steepened the surface softened and eventually we regrouped at 9,100 feet at the top of the Rama Couloir. It was now a bit after noon and the Extremely Canadian guides had timed the run so the couloir was facing direct sun. So we had a perfectly softened surface, which was fortunate because the Rama Couloir is 1,700 vertical, average maybe 30 degrees and 15 feet wide with a couple of sections barely a ski length wide that had to be sideslipped.
After a short break at 7,400 we had a long icy traverse on the shady and icy side of the valley for about 10km and 1000 vertical. Then a cross to the sunny side, a few sketchy sections, cross the stream at a dam, and finally a 500 vertical hike down to St. Christophe, arriving 3:15PM.
Now of course another 4 course gourmet lunch and eventually a 45 minute bus back to La Grave.
