26.12.02 Training in the Alps affected by tough conditions.
On 15 December the team headed for Meribel for a week of Alpine training, in order to improve the members' physical shapes, to test the new equipment (bought with reduction offered by Demmenie sport) and last but not least to do a lot of skiing. The snow conditions seemed promissing, though insecure: 40 - 70 cm of snow was dumped on the slopes in the days before our arrival.
The original plan (sleeping in a bivouac on the summit of Mt. Blanc) had to be abandoned due to avalanche danger. Instead, the new sleeping gear was tested on the balcony in Meribel. Not all sleeping bags appeared to be as warm as some thought...
In spite of the conditions we were able to make a nice ascend to the summit of the Mont Rosset in the Haute Tarantaise. Unfortunatly the route to the refuge de Balme was blocked by spontaneous avalances and lots of loud VVVVOOOOOMMM sounds. The avalanche danger was certainly higher than level 3 that was announced that morning in the bulletin. Hence, we had to descend the same way as we came. Luckily we found a couple of sections with knee-deep powder... The first Powder Eights of the season were printed in the snow! Awesome rockin'!!!
Highlights of our days on the slopes of Les Trois Vallées included:
- Many steep couloirs towards Meribel and Courchevel
- Snowboard spritzing and snowboard tipping
- The best skiing day ever: 50 cm deep untrailed fresh powder and a clear sky! This day the team descended 9594 altitude meters of which 6661 m in fresh powder! Click here to see the details (good luck imitating it)
- A 3 m cliff jump
- A 1200 m nightly ascend on skins from Meribel to the Olympique summit. The descend on breakable crust in the clouds was quite challenging...
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