Look back on winter 2015/16

As the season comes to an early end, it's nice to look back to just some of the epic ski days we had. After a lean start it turned into a great winter.

The 'just so valley' - the Vallon de Rechy

Just so...

Why call it the 'just so valley'? Well it's just so - consistently amazing, beautiful, untracked, quiet, remote, varied, huge and long... as is the list of words which describes how much I love this valley. Throughout winter we've had some amazing journeys, whichever route we've taken, and there are lots.

Here's a small collection of images from this and previous years ski days. It's not bad in summer either...

Great skiing

Wonderful views

Magical, even on a grey day

Makes a great day tour

For more images see our FaceBook page - here are a few links to some of our Vallon de Rechy days

www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1045216575493610.1073741881.232723673409575&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1038136209534980.1073741880.232723673409575&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.822418427773427.1073741862.232723673409575&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.622151517800120.1073741826.232723673409575&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.587871347894804.147912.232723673409575&type=3

Top 100

This is the 100th post on this blog so it seems appropriate to list (in no particular order) some of our favourite things to see, do and experience in and around the Val d'Anniviers

Things to see: 

Black-nosed sheep, gentians and edelweiss.

• Patch of gentians
• Black-nosed sheep
• Ptarmigan
• Edelweiss
• Sunset on the Besso
• Crocus poking up through the snow as spring arrives
• Meadows of summer flowers
• Marmotts running across the fields
• Ibex on the cliffs
• Waterfalls beyond Zinal in spring
• Golden Eagles

Walking routes:

Tour lac de Moiry, Lac Noir and up to Cabane d'Arpitettaz

• Up to Cabane d'Arpitettaz 
• Wiesshorn hotel to Zinal
• From top of Sorebois lift to Cabane Petit Mountet 
• Tour lac de Moiry
• Bisse walk in Vercorin
• Descent of Vallon de Rechy
• Crete de Midi
• Up to Cabane Grand Mountet
• From Bendolla south to the dam
• Chandolin along the cliffs
• Lac noir above St Luc

Best events:

Feeries Christmas Market, Sierre-Zinal race

• 1st August fireworks in Zinal
• Feeries Christmas market Grimentz
• Friday markets in August Grimentz
• Sierre Zinal mountain marathon
• Vercorin jazz festival
• Grimentz three day classical music festival 
• Marche des Cepages, wine and walking tour though the vin-yards
• Desalps
• Grand Raid – Verbier to Grimentz mountain bike race 

Food & Wine:

Locally cured sausages, home-made redcurrant jelly

• Fresh serac cheese from the alpine diary
• Vin de glacier from Bourgeois Grimentz
• Myrtle tart at Hotel Wiesshorn
• Wild alpine strawberries 
• Multi-grain bread from Salamin bakery
• Local cured dried sausages
• Redcurrant jelly made from the wild berries around the house
• Glass of white wine from the caves of Sierre

Favorite pistes to ski:

Illhorn red piste, Chandolin

• Chamois, Zinal
• Pas de Beouf to Prillet, St Luc
• Vercorin blue, from top station to the village
• Blue from Grands Plans chair past Etable du Marais, Grimentz
• Illhorn red piste, Chandolin

Things to do and visit:

Grimentz old town, moon light walk in winter, Hotel Weisshorn

• Histoic house, Zinal
• Walk through Zinal old town
• Centre of Grimentz
• Moon light walk in winter
• Sleep out under the stars on a summer's night
• Visit old flour mill in Grimentz
• See cheese being made in the mountain dairies
• Star gaze from the St Luc observatory
• Visit hotel Weisshorn – even better stay overnight
• Visit Tzoucdana cafe and see the farm animals
• Overnight in a mountain hut 
• Via ferrata below Moiry dam
• Snow shoe to the snout of the Zinal glacier and discover the ice-cave

Best off piste:

Down to the dam

• Down to the dam from Zinal
• Orzival
• Vallon de Rechy
• Variants around Chamois
• Off back of St Luc into Turtmann valley
• Zinal free-ride zone
• Vercorin trees
• Lona
• Pylon route 
• Middle bowl, Zinal
• Abondance
• Trees to Chiesso Blanc

Views to see:

Weisshorn, glaciers above Grand Mountet, sunset from Tracuit

• Sunset from Cabane Tracuit
• Top of Ilhorn over Rhone valley
• Col des Arpettes into Turtmann valley
• Glaciers from Cabane du Grand Mountet 
• Besso from Lac d'Arpitettaz
• Glaciers from Cabane du Moiry
• From Niouc the 'Imperial Crown'
• Weisshorn from bridge above Zinal 
• South from Barneuza
• South into Vallon de Rechy from top of Vercorin

Day ski-tours:

Basset de Levron, Bec de Bosson, Col du Pigne

• Tourno, St Luc
• Basset de Lona, Grimentz
• Cabane d'Arpittetta and on to Glacier de Moming
• Basset de Levron, Grimentz
• Off back Grimentz and over to Nax
• Glacier de Moiry and Col du Pigne
• Off back of Bella Tola

Favourite time of year:

Autumn colours, Zinal

• January – low sun and wonderful light
• February – early on, good snow and no people
• March – warmer and longer ski days
• April – spring snow
• May – crocuses appear through the melting snow
• June – meadows around the house are full of flowers
• July – higher alpine meadows come into flower
• August – lots of music and other events in all the villages
• September – warm days, no people and great walking
• October – larches turn golden and first snow on the peaks
• November – Zinal opens for weekend skiing
• December – Feeries market in Grimentz

'The Ski' reborn for the 21st Century

Scott have launched a new ski with an old name. 'The Ski' first hit the slopes in the 1970's as a must have freestyle ski designed by Sun Valley local Bobbie Burns.

'The Ski' - more fun on piste than seems right, and a brief test last season told us it's nice off piste too

Four sizes, four colours, 'The Ski' from Scott has been designed as one ski for all conditions. The shaping gives 'The Ski' a longer radius underfoot making it easier to handle on all types of terrain and conditions. The core is 100% wood from tip to tail which gives consistent flex and torsional stiffness.

Last winter we got a a pre-launch taster day. This season we have the whole fleet available for testing; we took them to St Luc for a blast around the piste with Scott UK general manager Steve. Verdict - great; we look forward to trying them in powder...

Proper powder

A snowy weekend has left the whole Val d'Anniviers in great shape. Lots of powder in the Chamois, top to bottom, putting the pleasure back into our run home.

Still finding powder

It's been 2 weeks since it last snowed, but the cold temps have kept the north facing slopes in good condition. You now have to skin to find some fresh tracks but if you know where to go it's still there to be skied. It also gave us the perfect opportunity to try out our new ski touring kit. Eric has some Dalbello Virus and I've got some Scarpa Gea touring boots. Both of them are light weight but aimed at tourers who want to go down as well as up and they ski really well.

Happy Boxing Day

 Powder snow, freezing temps, sunshine and no one around...

Early winter skills: how to escape snow-bound UK

Heavy snow across the UK and Europe didn't stop our first Mountain Tracks group arriving for their Early Winter Skills course. Great snow and excellent guiding and instruction from Olly, Claire and Roddy gave everyone a taste for skiing the deep stuff including a run down to the dam and down the Chamois back to our chalet. A great start to the season... Thanks to Delia for the photos.

photo: Delia Cox

photo: Delia Cox

Movie making

You can tell we're dreaming of winter when we start putting together video clips of last season. At least the music is summery...

Haute Maurienne

It should come as no surprise that the Haute Maurienne is rather lovely and has some cracking skiing. One valley south of the Tarentaise - Val d'Isere, Tignes and all that - and bordered by the magnificent Vanoise national park, it's bound to be good.

Bonneval, at the head of the valley, is the most intact example of an old stone-built village you could hope for. Some of the buildings have been superbly converted into very nice places to stay but don't plan on driving to the door unless you're travelling by donkey.

If cross country skiing is your thing, you could hardly improve on the 80km of trails around Bessans where you can also shoot stuff (it's a biathlon centre). But why bother with the valley floor when there's great access to big peaks and glaciers in every direction? The pictures show our climb to the 3356m Signal du Grand Mont Cenis, followed by the descent - wild glacier, cliffy gullies and then open meadows - which brings you neatly back into the ski domaine and back to base after 1800 vertical metres of excellent skiing, and not another soul: we didn't cross another ski track all day. Also good were a couple of routes from Bonneval - a slightly hairy entrance into the Vallonet after booting up from the top chairlift, and the traverse across les Cordettes - an immense open snowfield - followed by the descent following the Andagne stream down to the valley floor. 

Back down the valley, starting from the resort of Aussois, is the classic descent from the Col des Hauts on the southern shoulder of the Pointe de Bellecote, down into the valley of the Ruisseau de Bonne Nuit. It would certainly be 'good night', forever, if you were caught in one of the monstrous avalanches which thunder down this stream bed. If it's safe to do so, you can ski right down towards Termignon, but when it's not feasible you can cut round through the forest and out onto a track back to the road. Whichever way you go, it's an amazing descent in return for just about 500m of booting or skinning. For guiding throughout the valley, Regis Burnel is your man. 

Happy new year

When full moon coincides with new year's eve in Zinal, the place to be is on the 'plat', the flood plain above the village, with the moonlight reflected off the mountains making it bright enough to see colours by. Sledging, hot punch, toasted marshmallows and a roaring fire followed by Chinese lanterns drifting skywards against a backdrop of fireworks over the village.

Our lovely Christmas guests cunningly arranged a very early start home today, allowing us to hit the first lift in Zinal. Lots of great snow and a chance to try the Scott Stunt skis which are of approximately waterski dimensions and go like the clappers. Very nice but I think I'm more of a Pure-ist (see below) for anything other than super-deep untracked snow. Mind you, it's just started snowing again, so who knows...

Fat Christmas

Finally getting a chance to work my way through the new Scott skis in our rack since our Christmas guests are not real freeride material:

Crusairs - as light as you could hope for and incredibly helpful in dodgy snow, even breakable crust; they turn for themselves which takes a bit of getting used to.
Punishers - match my cold weather outfit really well (an orange theme) and they go very nicely, though I'm not really a twin-tip sort of person, generally aiming not to go backwards or to get airbourne without very good reason.
Pures - four hours hooning round the mountain in shin-deep fresh snow and heavy chop on the way down to Zinal (there's more snow than average above about 2000m here but recent warm temps have left it less good down below) was more fun than should be allowed; a much easier ride than expected, and neutral balance that never put me in the back seat. Guests will have to be very persuasive to make me hand over these ones. But if I'm going to ride them all day, I'll need to get some bigger thigh muscles from somewhere.

It snowed overnight and like crazy today - complete whiteout - so it could be perfect super-deep conditions to try the Stunts tomorrow. Quite excited? Just a bit.

Winter Skills: how to stay warm and have fun

Chilly temperatures (down to -20C) made skiing more of a challenge than usual this week. Boot-fitters always stress how important it is to have feedback from your feet when skiing, and for that it's important you have all your toes a) still attached and b) not frozen solid. On the plus side, the cold preserved the powder, giving our Mountain Tracks ski group and instructor Claire Summers plenty of fresh tracks all week despite no significant fresh snow for 10 days. A bit of skinning provided the perfect warm-up once in a while, as well as access to the best stuff, though we steered clear - on local advice - of the tempting descent to the dam; the way out would have been a quick way to wreck everyone's shiny new skis.

If I can work out how to post a video, I'll put up one of Kathy's acrobatic extravaganzas next.

Dam skiing

Two great days out with Nick, Archie and Tara (on telemark) after a week of wind, snow and storm. Day one: lots of powder in Zinal's freeride area, followed by a good run down to the Moiry dam. Day two: the gullies at the top of the Chamois and the north side of Orzival in Grimentz, ending with a picnic and a grassy descent into St Jean, through meadows of crocus and primrose. Not that spring is here quite yet - minus 10 degrees and a snowstorm is on its way, apparently...
Mountain Tracks

The snow's quite deep today...