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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3070 |
23rd February 2019 Skiing: Les Rousses Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny, mild and windy at the top! Max Speed: 33.33 (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: 26 miles (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Saturday 23rd February – Ski ***** Swiss side at Les Rousses – sunny, mild and windy at the top! 5 hours 30 mins. out, 26 miles covered & 33.33 knot max speed, two lift passes with insurance 62.08 Euros. All by ourselves at the little ski carpark at Le Tabagnox. Not such a good night last night as it was windy, not enough to rock the van just noisy:( We were beginning to regret spending out on lift passes for today but it was supposed to drop from 9 onwards when the lifts opened so we had our fingers crossed. Up early and ready to go as Mag had already made the picnic last night. We are now running short of supplies and will probably move on this afternoon in search of a shop. We walked the 200m to the lift, got some instruction from a very nice lift attendant on how to use a t – bar (we have used them before but are rubbish!) and were soon heading up. It is a laugh both of us side by side on the lift trying our best not to fall off as we headed out of the shade into another clear blue day and sheltered from the wind here lower down amongst the trees. It was very pretty with a lovely old barn and when we stopped for a pic a squirrel ran across the piste. We started with the nice blue down through the trees on freshly pisted snow and not too icy as fairly mild again. We then set off across to Les Rousses resort with all of our skiing being done in Switzerland. We used all the lifts, first two quiet buttons the Leseneys where we passed yesterday’s snow shoe track on the way. Then the short Reculet button. Using each of the lifts at least a couple of times so we could ski all the pistes a mixture of red and blues which I thought were good but Mag. with her shorter skis, found hard going in places as it was a bit hard and icy but the snow is still in pretty good condition considering it hasn’t snowed for a while and it’s been sunny and mild for the whole time we have been in France! The main 4 seat chair to the top was open despite a warning that it might close at any time due to vente (strong wind) so we had to bite the bullet and join the queue as this took you to the very top of the Massif De La Dole (1678m) where the two large radio golf balls sit and again offer amazing views of Lac Lemen and the high Alps. It was fairly orderly in the queue, yet more oafs vaping covering everyone downwind in foul caramel smoke, absolutely disgusting:( It was a long chair and it got windier closer to the top. You had to turn left, ski a short way up and stop to walk steeply up to take in the view. It was very hard climbing up the ice in ski boots but boy was it worth it!!! The view was just out of this world, words just can’t explain how fantastic it was. The whole of the Lac Lemen valley was full of cloud which lapped against the base of the Alps on the far side and Mont Blanc looked magnificent with a sea of white at its base, just amazing. The only trouble was you had a job to walk into the wind! We continued past the golf balls and telephone dishes taking it all in until we could see Mijoux where the clouds were cascading over the resort like a waterfall! This is the end that can be walked up from the road below and had already been done this morning by snow shoers and ski tourers. Perhaps on another visit, on a less windy day, we will give it a try. There were several skiers walking up from all direction and then skiing off the back, what an adventure! After a fantastic time at the top we returned to our skis and the fun really began! It is a narrow, icy red off the top straight into a headwind with snow swirling in your face. We reached the blue Les Combes and thought it would be fine, the top section was hard and icy, I found it OK but Mag took one look at it and decided no way is she doing that on blades so side slipped down a section off offpiste to meet up with a red and then me. The long runs down from this point were fine as we continued our journey across the resort. First the Valdappes, a short button, but some nice blues and over to the baby button the Cuvaloup 3 as the button to the top had a big queue as it is the only way out. Again, it was great fun skiing down here past a busy restaurant with the Swiss flag flying! We then had to join the queue for the high button which you had to side step up, Mag wasn’t overly keen to head to the very top again but we have only got a half day pass and it was time to think about heading back but not before we discovered the best run in the resort, the long red Competition piste. Things were going great - leap frogging from button to button until I noticed an intriguing black at the top of the Leseneys lift and without a word to Mag who was right behind me just stupidly turned onto it, I honestly thought that Mag had seen the black marker board and had more sense than me and hadn’t followed! The Les Quartres Murs black started off fine, a lovely rolling run until I came to the first of two really steep (sheer!!) and I mean really shady steep sections! I managed to gingerly side slip down and now I hoped that Mag had gone the other way!!! Well I didn’t know for half an hour as I then headed back to the Le Tabagnox our starting point and she was nowhere to be seen:( I waited at the top of lifts, at the bottom I went up on the t – bar and did a loop bearing in mind our tickets had long since expired but lucky for us the attendants are not overly vigilant. I found a great spot for our picnic, now all I had to do was find Mag hoping upon hope that she hadn’t hurt herself on the black!!!! Then standing at the bottom of the Le Tabagnox with fingers crossed Mag whizzed into view and we didn’t even fall out! After yet another snowy adventure, we managed to sneak onto the lift one last time and told our tale of the last half an hour! It turned out she had been asked to take a photo of a family at the top of the lift and thought I had just gone to the top of the black to eat lunch so followed! It turned out she got down exactly the same way as me and then returned to the top of the lift because apparently, we have a rule that we always return to where we last saw each other! Who knew!! We then headed over to the old barn we saw first thing, borrowed an old wooden bench and enjoyed yummy tuna wraps in the lovely sunshine:) It was then a bit of off piste to the blue and back to the van knackered, what a week we have had, three ski sessions and fours days out on snow shoes must be time for a few quiet days! We decided we were too tired to head to Les Rousses in search of a supermarket so decided to stay here for our third night and move off tomorrow. Cuppa, read, doze then cheese and biscuits followed by a game of Phase 10. All alone again we are cheerily pipped and waved to by the passing piste basher who is probably thinking we are a permanent feature!! Then treated to a lovely red sky sunset before a store cupboard tea of corned beef, baked beans and mash potatoes, we really know how to live. Lots of WhatsApp banter with our boys back home and fingers crossed for a quiet peaceful night sleep tonight! Photo Gallery Here |
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