Day 4. Sawdust & dogspit.

Drove over to Les arcs for our free days forfait in the other half of Paradiski (paradise ski?!). Eschewed the ease & convenience of the funnicular (who wants to be in a slushy crush of sweaty Frenchies at the end of the day?) for the thrills of navigating our own way to arc1800. Needless to say we got lost - only monsieur la poubelle, with his fags & recycling, got us back on target. We got found by the helpful, if over-dressed, fifi la tourisme, who explained everything & even let us park in the administration car park, gratuit.
A little (long) stroll through Arc's authentic 70's cobbled streets, past the knobbing dogs, got us to the Transarc bubble - definitely the best way up the hill here.
Pleasant cafe & terrasse for coffee at top - even an avalanche park to learn rescue techniques.
Rode some blues & reds up here - dull fairly featureless bowl from Col de la Chal to arc2000. Headed to Tuffes bumps & moguls to get above the bowl for some off piste interest - but only really got about 3 or 4 decent big turns on the steep (not deep).
Headed up Aiguille rouge - reasonable red - not many options to get away from the piste, very mogulled.
Then back over to the other side via Grand Renard. Best coffee of the week at Le Poudreuse...proper separate jug of steamed milk n all t'lot. No powder though.
Afternoon spent messing around in & out the woods between the blues & reds of Vallandry/Plan Peisey. Heavy in places, but more interesting terrain. Spotting trail ideas from the chairlift Rich explained that patchy cover was no problem - he could ride everything from dogspit & sawdust to slate & shale. 10 mins later he proved his styles by riding tree stumps - or thats what he said anyway.
Raced back over for last lifts to arc1800, taking in the groomed & carvable slalom stade/course for final grins.
Overall, fun in the trees, but size, variety, flexibility & snow quality wins hands down for La plagne.
And quite why they've built that daft boat on a wire to join up the two sides...?
Did some of the gear shops in Bourg. Not a lot going on - intersport crap. The boarder place on the main road's ok - couple of classic old surf style kamikazi boards from the early 80s (?)
Had pizza (v. good) at Mama Mias back in Plagne  1800. No sign of Harrogate Road...

Day 3. Mont-Chav-init

Its only a name I suppose, Montchavin. And a great spot - big open bowl with a couple short bumps, steeps & gullies. Poetic irony though to have shared the chairlift up with a couple of ski-blinged Essex guttermouths.
We only had a half day, knackered, and Rich recovering from his vom freakery in the witching hour. Still, we rode pretty hard & non-stop around L'Arpette for 3 or 4 hours, mostly in the big bowl below Crozat, which had fantastic soft snow and plenty of terrain to play around on - more or less all to ourselves too, crazy Euros just seem to want to cruise piste.
Popped over towards Dos Rond, over the boarder cross, then a hilarious descent into the trees. Deep, sugary, untracked, and even fun if you keep your tip up & arc your turns. Boards off twice, though, eventually clambering down to a skidoo trail or road & walking out to the Carroley chair. Definitely had that one to ourselves!
Had to skidaddle quick to get last lifts back. Piled from l'Arpette to Bellecote in 6 or 7 mins for last lift up & back to Plagne.
La Mine bar in 1800 seemed more lively than the centre, and was worth a pint - even if it was full of Brit ski knobs.

Day 2. Mullahs don't snowboard.

 But plenty of dickheads ski...

Found a few more nice off piste spots today with good softish stuff. The bowl under the roche de Mio cable, back of verdons sud, and down in t'trees between pollux & carina. All that flat blue stuff above Plagne villages sucks though.
Very quiet tonight - went to Legend Bar & Bar No BLM (eh?) - not busy for apres. Good burgers in Le Far West (or so we thought).
Good bus service (navette gratuit) back from Centre to 1800.
Rich declared himself "really really fit". Then he went to bed with a headache at 10.15, and 2 hours later violently razzed up his salmonella burger.

Day 1. It hasn't melted ...

The all important cold white stuff is here. The snowline is high though, maybe 1700 or 1800m. And at the moment, the freezing level is much higher. It was so warm today, i would guess air temp in resort (1800/2000) was 14-15 degrees, with a hot sun. We were sweating buckets trying to put the turns in on the steep. The advantage of the warm weather is that theres some soft stuff around. Its not powder, but if you half close your eyes, keep the tip of the board up, and head down something south facing & off piste...
We headed up to Le Biolley, then down & across Plagne Centre & Bellecote to Roche de Mio. Rich bust his binding so a fix from SkiSet in Bellecote was a relief - theyre not really focused on boarding round here.
We didn't bother with the high point of the Glacier de la Chiaupe, instead following the softer stuff on the blues down the back to Versant. Dropped into a nice tight gully down to Verdons sud, with lots of small, but chunky avalanches.
Back up to Les Verdons then slogged over mixed stuff according to the aspect of the slope - icy then sugary piste & soft then crunchy off piste. Finally blasted the blue behind Centre back to Plagne 1800, and necked our own lagers cos we couldn't trouve la boozer - have to sort that tomorrow!

Picnic at Aire(de Fontanelle)'s rock

I nicked the mayo & moutarde sachets, Rich made the butties ... Oh. Happy happy.

Superfly to the Alps

Managed to grab a bargain late Friday night for La Plagne, even the Jet2 flights were more expensive than the apartment!
Rich got us a motor on his fancy black Amex business, and we were off - into the bright sunshine of a beautiful spring morning in Geneva.
Thank heaven we got a free upgrade to the mighty Toyota Auris, with its incredible top speed of 140 kmh. At this rate, with the valley temp at 18°, would there be any snow left?

Stag on the A82 (no sign of RAC)

Stag on the A82 (no sign of RAC), originally uploaded by gavin_sweet.

Homeward bound. Stag broken down?

Curved ridge wash-out

Unfortunately the plan to combine a guided ascent of Curved ridge on the buchaille with a bit of instruction to improve our winter technical skills had to get changed.
We teamed up with Cliff from Alan Kimbers school in Fort William:
http://www.westcoast-mountainguides.co.uk/
It was so wet and windy though, that just getting dragged up an out of condition grade III route for the hell of it seemed pointless.
We took Cliff's advice and stuck to the shelter of great gully, where we messed around practising snow and ice belay techniques - bucket seats, deadman, axe belays, etc, including stomp and footbrake descent techniques. All good stuff.
There was a lot of avalanche debris in the bigger steeper fields, so at points it was slightly nervy day. I've been playing on the hills for over 30 years, and hadnt seen quite so much avalanche action before - big dumps of snow, unbonded, turn to mush as the temperature goes up, and then slide slowly down ....

Bidean - mission accomplished

Bidean - mission accomplished, originally uploaded by gavin_sweet.

From Coire nam Beitheach we plodded up the ridge against a strong wind. Crampons awkward but more or less required.
Deserted on the top. Took 5 mins for a buttie. Wind chill very low again, maybe -25 or so.
Descent easy, and followed a shallower line from the bealach back into the corrie - more or less all sliding on our bums.

Coire nam Beitheach

Looking up towards Coire nam Beitheach, originally uploaded by gavin_sweet.

Conditions on Saturday colder and a little less windy. A couple of inches of frash snow right down to the glen.
High avalanche risk with so much snow around, and we didnt want to burn up before long day with guide tomorrow. Straightforward route up Bidean via nam Beitheach seemed a good idea.Legs warmed slowly but by the time we made the high corrie to the south west we were going well. Several other parties out looking at buttresses below Aonach Dubh, not sure whether they saw them through though as there was a deal of snow up there, and we saw groups exiting below later.
The Coire nam Beitheach was filled with snow, but it was still light and holding together well. Followed a line to the side of the middle of the headwall by an obvious rib of rock in the centre. Quite steep but avoiding any obvious danger from cornices. Easy exit to the sharp ridge of the bealach where we were smacked in the face by a very strong wind.

Beinn Fhada

Beinn Fhada, originally uploaded by gavin_sweet.

Made the ridge in fast time, but very strong winds on top, blowing at maybe 50mph, with gusts of 60-80mph. Goggles essential, and at times almost impossible to stay on feet without crouching for shelter. Elected to go without crampons - mostly just blown powder on well consolidated snowpack on the ridgeline - so more agile in just boots. Wind chill probably -20 or -25.
Struggled to the summit, but opted to descend back into the glen from the bealach beyond, rather than carrying on up to Stob Coire Sgreamhach - just didnt have enough daylight.
Dropped down open slopes then a few easy snowy ribs and gullies back into Lairig Eilde, above the gorge that heads up to Sgreamhach.
Long and easy going walk out through thick wet snow, and slush.
Followed another group out who ended up sat next to us in the Clachaig - where we had to perform essential rehydration, using that well known dark beery medicine.... Haggis, neeps and taties well recommended also.

Ben crossing Allt Lairig Eilde

Ben crossing Allt Lairig Eilde, originally uploaded by gavin_sweet.

Bit of a late start to Friday, having driven up through the mad weather on Thursday - snow nearly closing the M6/M73, lorries blown over, hurricane winds etc.... relieved to get to the Clachaig before last orders...
Set off in a howling wind up the Lairig Eilde between Buchaille Etive Beag and Beinn Fhada/Coire Screamagh. Plenty of snow around but temperatures only really hoverng around zero in the glens.
Sketchy manoevre crossing the burn, then up the nose of the most easterly of the sisters of Glencoe. A couple of steep snowfields before we gained the ridge, as you move up the grass ramps between the crags, but more tiring than anything, kicking steps mostly in soft and unconsolidated snow.