April in Grimentz

I finally finished my Blog. I skied pretty well all of April. Not got much internet at the moment, more on the link, if you are interested :D
http://sunshack.wordpress.com/

Nice one bandit .....
:thumbup:

Looks fantastic! I had great skiing in April too. Way better than in February and March combined. Shame they had to close two days earlier because of the wind, and Patrouille des Glaciers got cancelled, and an avalanche death happened on the last week, a very nice young local guy too. Very sad.

Thanks Verbier Ski Bum and OldAndy. It's the 1st time I've skied for 21 days straight. Good test of my boots fit. I love my Zipfits. Thank you CEM :D

The last run but one off piste on my last day, I felt my skiing had actually improved, a Eureka! moment. So much more terrain to ski in Grimentz, definitely need more Avalanche Awareness training. Left with the feeling that I've got away with the consequences of a couple of poor route choices this April.

Hi Bandit,
Thanks for the link to your blog :D

It was very interesting, but I found the bits about minor avalanches and T-Bars breaking slightly worrying.

I'm glad you had a good time out on the snow. I nearly did an avalanche awareness day in Val Thorens, but we decided to go ski-ing instead :mrgreen:

I am too cautious to go off piste in any case.

AllyG wrote:I'm glad you had a good time out on the snow. I nearly did an avalanche awareness day in Val Thorens, but we decided to go ski-ing instead :mrgreen:

Thanks :D Learning about snow science, and how the snowpack develops is part of developing skills as a skier.

I am too cautious to go off piste in any case.

I thought you had aleady been off piste with an Instructor? Avoiding all off piste will be a bit restricting. What would you do if you needed to ski a route marked as an Itinerary?

Bandit,
You're quite right, I have been off-piste with an instructor, but only really down the side of a piste, or between 2 pistes. I should have said I am too cautious to go off-piste without an instructor.

I thought the itinerary routes were avalanche controlled? I'm pretty sure they are in Tignes - the ones that are basically ungroomed (but patrolled) black pistes.

AllyG wrote:Bandit,
You're quite right, I have been off-piste with an instructor, but only really down the side of a piste, or between 2 pistes. I should have said I am too cautious to go off-piste without an instructor.

This year a French Ski Instructor was given a 12 month suspended sentence by a French Court. He caused an avalanche which killed 1 person in his group.

I thought the itinerary routes were avalanche controlled? I'm pretty sure they are in Tignes - the ones that are basically ungroomed (but patrolled) black pistes.

Some are secured and patrolled, some are not. It really depends on the resort/country. It's quite useful to be able to make a route choice, based on the conditions on the day.
There have been a number of recorded incidents of avalanches crossing open pistes in Europe over the last couple of years. It would appear that I'm not the only one with stuff to learn.