The "Slightly Steeper" Ski Tours week provided some excellent skiing and some challenging moments as usual - this is a week that does exactly what it says on the tin! With no recent fresh snow, Arolla still had plenty of untracked slopes, and day one started with 600m of fresh tracks off the Mont Rouge.
.jpg "Fresh tracks on Mont Rouge")
Day 2 saw us climbing to the Vignettes hut, and rattling down some surprisingly windblown snow through the spectacular scenery of the Vuibé glacier. Challenging skiing, but a great descent.
.jpg "Great snow in the Vuibé entry")
.jpg "Spectacular scenery lower down the Vuibé, but \"character-building\" snow!")
On day 3 we made the long climb to the Pallanche de la Cretta. The West face is rarely skied, but looked perfect...and it was!
.jpg "West face of the Pallanche, with Pointe de Vouasson behind")
Tired legs and cloudy weather sent us to Nax, where the lift system can take the strain. The shady side of Mont Noble was so good we did 4 laps, each time with a quick 250m skin back into the lift area.
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.jpg "Negotiating rocks on the 4th lap")
.jpg "Fine open slopes, and untracked!")
Good weather again on Thursday so we went to Mont de l'Étoile. The south face had excellent spring snow and had escaped the Foehn-blasting which seemed to have wrecked the higher North faces.
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.jpg "Camera never lies...but it does make things look less steep.")
We finished the week in Evolene with a slightly disappointing ski on Pic d'Artsinol, and a very fine descent of Rionde de Vendes! A fine end to a great week.
.jpg "Evolene, and fresh tracks down the Rionde de Vendes.")
