An alarm woke us with a jolt this morning. Only after Clare announced to the dorm that it was time to shake a leg, was it established that it was actually only 4am! The owner of the phantom alarm clock was never established, but we all got our heads back down without discussion for another three hours until the agreed morning call went off. By then, out of the window, things were looking much more promising...
We'd left our kit drying by the fire and it was all warm to put on as we stumbled through to the dining room.
Excitement and anticipation was running high as we rushed through our last hut breakfast of dry bread, jam and treacle thick coffee. There was a weather window opening outside and it wasn't forecast to stay open for long! The early mist was clearing to reveal the impressive peak of Le Pain de Sucre (3208m) as we stepped outside and clipped into our skis.
We set off from the hut and upto the Col de l'Eychessier. Up ahead was blue skies, but we kept a nervous eye on the clouds on the other side of the valley
The sun rose over the horizon and the temperature instantly rose, but we'd done the majority of the height gain by then.
It was perfect ski touring conditions...
Before long we arrived at the Col de l'Eychassier. The views were fantastic in every direction, with the Tête des Toillies looking particularly impressive in the distance. All we had to do was decide where to go next?! Ski the way we'd come; climb a nearby peak; or descend into the next valley? After some discussion we stuck with the plan of descending into the next valley. The thrill of exploring into new terrain, making decisions about which way to go and watching new landscapes open up are all part of the attraction of travelling through the mountains on skis for me.
From the Col, we picked our way down through some cliffs, roughly following the 'Torrent du Foreant', skiing great snow along the way.
At one point l got up onto a small promentory to get a better view of the lay of the land. Once the best way down was established, I had a grandstand view of the others as they made their way down.
The only tracks (or any signs of life for that matter) in the entire valley were ours.
It was absolute mountains bliss all the way down to the frozen lake (Lac Foreant) in the valley bottom.
After revelling in the buzz of the descent we stopped to put or skins back on so that we could climb back up to the Col Vieux (2806m).
This gave the day a real journey feel as we made our way through the solitary valley.
The higher we climbed, the better the views became...
But as we neared the Col though, clouds began to form...
Before long, we began to get enveloped in the mist, so decided to stop for some food and drink before reaching the Col, where it looked much winder.
It was a good call as the Col Vieux was no place for hanging around. We took off our skins and prepared for the descent.
The five or so centimetres of fluffy snow couldn't have been better for skiing. The only problem was, that the visability now had been reduced to a matter of metres! Skiing and navigation required mind bending levels of concentration. Without difinition between the ground and sky it was almost impossible to tell how fast I was moving or at what angle! We slowly and carefully made our way down, checking the GPS every now and then to confirm we were heading the right way still.
Thankfully we all made it out of the clouds unscathed and without feeling sea sick! Once we located the hut, all that was left was to follow the road back to the cars near Fontgillarde - an easy angled 7km cruise and a splendid way to finish the tour.
Back in St Veran, we all sat out in the sun on the terrace downing cups of tea and scoffing Jaffa cakes while our kit dried off.
After a fair bit of umming and aarring, we decided to leave the guys (who were due to leave the following morning) and set off down the valley towards the next phase of our trip. It was a good call to get a bit of the drive done and somehow Clare managed to get us booked into a luxurious hotel near Embrum, super cheaply. Showers, pizza, wine were all showed some appreciation before we eventually crashed out.
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