Nick from Ski Higher - Ski Blog - Off Piste off the Creux Noir Chair

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01 January 2010

1st of January 2010!

A new decade has brought new snow. Over night snow combined with the snow that had been falling at high altitude all week has created epic conditions at the top of Courchevel. More snow is even falling all the way down to ‘Le Praz’ as I write. It’staken its time coming but winter really does feel like it’s finally here!

I and a Friend (Ed from Ski Higher) managed to fight off mighty hangovers this morning and rip our best lines of the season. The ‘Creux Noir’ Chair, which opens up another huge area of off piste, opened today and what lay at the top of the rickety three seater was truly breath taking! From 12:00 till 14:00 the clouds parted and allowed us to ski a warm up run on the open face to the left of the chair.

We then traversed further on our second line hunt, only to be told by a mountain guide that the Couloir we wanted to ski had a huge overhanging slab that looked set to break at any moment. This forced us to ski into the Meribel valley and do a face neither of us had done before.

However as we rounded a small outcrop of rocks a face 60 turns long and laden with powder opened up before us.

After a big man hug and whooping we were left to enjoy the stunning scenery that the ‘Plan Tueda’ national park has to offer!

Nick.