MegèveSki

Randonnée to Col de Very

Today we did our first bit of ski touring, or a Randonnée as they call it here in France. Touring is where you travel to places that aren't served by lifts; you walk up the up bits, on your skis, and ski down the down bits. Today's trip went well; we did a 5km hike and climbed 600m or so, had lunch at the top and then skied back down again. The skiing is real off-piste, no lifts, nobody else around. Lucy guided us on our trip and we met at her place at 7am for breakfast and then drove to the base of Cote 2000 for the start of our journey at 7.56, well before first lifts...

Lucy had recommended that we didn't do the trip on telemark skis as the ski back could be through deep slush if it was late in the afternoon and this would be hard work for us given our lack of telemark experience. Instead we were told to go with normal skis with touring bindings rather than telemark or the special Randonnée skis and boots. Randonnée boots are softer and lighter than normal alpine boots and she thought that if the snow on the way down was heavy and wet then we'd be better off in our own boots than in hired Randonnée boots. Likewise, Randonnée skis are straighter and much lighter than we're used to and these would also likely cause us problems in the expected snow conditions. Touring bindings are like a cross between telemark and normal alpine bindings. You can unlock the heel to walk up and lock the heel back down to ski down. Lucy was on a pair of borrowed Randonnée skis as she thought that they'd be better for her than her telemarks and lighter than touring bindings.

To enable us to walk up the slope on our skis you need to apply "skins" to the skis. These were originally animal skins but are now synthetic alternatives. The skins are stuck to the base of the ski and allow the ski to slide forward but prevent it from sliding backwards. This allows you to slide the ski forward, step onto it and then slide the next ski forward without the first ski slipping back. The skins were amazingly effective and allow you to walk up pretty steep inclines without slipping.

We put the skins on in the car park at Cote 2000 and then walked up the green piste that snakes around the other pistes. The conditions were very good, the snow had frozen last night giving a nice firm surface and nobody had yet skied the run to churn it up. We got the hang of walking on our skis pretty quickly; it's like using the "Nordic track" ski exercise machine at the gym, only the view's better...

We walked up past the Radaz chair to just above the base of the Cote 2000 chair and then climbed higher to where the blue piste from Lanchette comes through the tunnel and drops down to the Cote 2000 chair. We followed the blue for most of its route up towards the top of Lanchette and then cut off-piste and started to climb a steep section towards the ridge. This was where the first "technical" thing was required; because of the steepness we needed to zig-zag up the slope and do conversion turns when we wanted to turn a zig into a zag. These are turns that are a bit like a kick turn, you turn one ski to face the new required direction and then step up onto it and turn the other to also face the new way; sounds way easier than it was when we first tried it...

We reached the ridge at around 9.45 having risen about 400m. The ridge was the far end of the ridge that you ski along when travelling from Rochebrune to Cote 2000 via Lanchette. We passed a warning sign and then cut along a narrow path and started a short descent towards old avalanche debris. We were wearing trancievers and carrying shovels and probes and due to the fact that we'd made good time and the slope was still well in the shade Lucy decided that it was safe to cross the debris quite high up and take quite a direct route towards our goal. We descended and crossed the debris and then began the final part of our ascent, off-piste across rolling snow fields with hardly a track on them. We saw a group of three skiiers off in the distance taking another route and were passed by two other guys who were motoring along much faster than we were but apart from that the place was deserted.

The final ascent took about an hour and was hard work; after all, by the end we'd been doing continuous aerobic exercise at altitude for 3 hours with the occasional 5 minute rest stop. By the end my feet were starting to hurt and my legs were tired, I simply stared at Miche's skis in front of me and keep taking steps upward. When we finally reached the top the view was well worth the walk and we had a chance to sit down and rest, change our sweaty tops for something warm and dry and have lunch.

We rested for an hour at the top and then started to get cold; we'd had lunch a little below the ridge line so that we were out of the wind but it was still pretty cool, after all we were at around 2020m. The snow on the final ascent had been really good, cold and firm and untracked except for the odd snowmobile track and some signs of wildlife. We removed our skins and locked the heels of the bindings down and skied down the off-piste section in about 15mins. The snow was still great, firm enough to support us yet soft enough to give a little as we skied it. We crossed reached the avalanche debris and put the skins back on for a short ascent back up to the point on the ridge above where we'd left the blue piste down from Lanchettes to Cote 2000. We skied the final off-piste section which was pretty short (3 turns?) and much softer and steeper than the earlier stuff and then we were back in civilisation and on pisted runs.

We skied down to the car park at Cote 2000 in around 10 mins and clambered into the car and headed back to Lucy's for a beer, some snacks, nattering and recovery.

The Suunto says we did 1 run for a descent of 640m in 5 hrs and 13 mins. That included an hour for lunch and around 25 mins skiing down, the rest was walking up. The chart produced b y the Sunnto PC software is quite different in shape from the usual chair lift up, ski down, repeat graphs.

The day was hard work but lots of fun. It's nice to get completely away from the pisted runs and travel under your own steam for a change. I'm sure we'll do this again soon, well, once our legs recover.