Trip Report
Just back from Risoul , Southern French Alps. Went with Rocketski again as they are bargin-tastic if you are happy with basic hotels and lots of hot water, with reasonable food.
Flew into Turin with a simple 2hr + transfer, little in way of snow on the ground, and flying in looked very green. Claviere and Montgenevre then Briancon showed little to no snow no the ground but pistes all appeared OK from the bus.
Hotel approx 100m from resort center, with a choice of lifts running up from there. Room for 5, with just 2 of us in it so no problem with storage at all. No new snow for 2 weeks though, so all OP tracked and freeze / thawed.
Spent first few days hunting out potential powder spots and finding the best pistes to practise on. Alot of man made snow but well bashed in and mixed with what they had gathered from piste side.
Its been , and was, very cold so snow making possible for most nights. Cannons not on during the day though. Best snow was up high , above 2000m and dropping down to Vars there were white ribbons through green feilds.
Wed night we had approx 6cm of fresh which blew into pockets and gathered in the tracks offpiste. It was possible to look from the chair and see where the fresh snow had lain and filled in the ruts . Got first lift into on area and had 7 runs alone and made the best of it.
Weather changed Thursday , wind picked up and temps dropped. stacked Lenticular clouds over the tops and snow in the air , coupled with the 22cm forcast online we knew a front was moving in.
Started about 7pm in earnest Thurs and kept on till we gave up 1630 Fri , pretty much without a break. Very windy above 2200m ( 40 + knots , maybe 50+the gusts ) so we stayed low. No powder on exposed hardpack so we went hunting.
Got 3rd chair out of town so made alot of fresh tracks on piste, alot of pistes were 100% powder so all the newbies were struggling with wrong gear, wrong skis, wrong lenses etc.
My new shell jacket and Westbeach troos did a great job, just fingers and toes feeeling the -24’c ( with windchill ) temps . 2 base layers , pillowed fleece, snood and goggles were fine.
Spotted a pitch where all the trees had fresh powder stuck on so made our way into an area roped off alongside a drag lift.
It was virgin powder , between 30 and 40cm everywhere , enough to cover all the sharks waiting underfoot . We spend 4 hours tracking out the entire hillside , some comedy crashes , a few ‘Woah, That is a crack in the powder shooting out in front of me’ moments ‘ plus finding some very steep areas where we were looking at the tops of the trees on the slope that were about 2 turns downhill.
Bugged out of that area as it was steep and loose and found somewhere with a lower pitch.
Great resort for learners, not so good for boarders with flat run outs to lift stations. Older chairs with no covers which would have been a nice relief from the wind.Be great today / this week there.
Bus transfer home showed Serre C + MilkyWay to have had a similar amount but alot less wind so the trees were absolutlely stacked with snow.
