John read an article yesterday that said one way of combatting dementia is to be mentally positive and remain active at our age (over 70). So today Gordon sends a WhatsApp saying that he was going to investigate spring snow on Rochebrune. We therefore take our touring skis and skins and follow the crowd - Gordon, Neville and Neville's partner, Caroline. They are all super fit, Gordon and Neville having spent a week ski touring in Italy recently and Caroline won two bronze medals last year at the Badminton Veterans' World Championships. And then there's us.
The first bit was fine. We skied off the back of Lanchettes just below the Pre-Rosset restaurant. The snow was fantastic but it was over too soon. Gordon had already set off and was a dot on the horizon. The rest of us put our skins on and soon Neville and Caroline disappeared. John and I trudged up, wondering at which stage we should turn round.
On the way a small plane flew over - this is Neville's pic of us trudging up and the shadow of the plane.
We thought that when we got to the top of the ridge we might have been able to ski down to the restaurants at the end of the road which passes the Sylvana, but on the ridge we were not sure that the way down was obvious, particularly as we knew there was a cliff in the way.
So we opted to follow the others (again) and ski down the way we had come up. And that was fantastic. See pic on right.
The walk up the other side was tough. This is Gordon in the foreground with John & me behind, but if you look carefully you can see our tracks coming down from the ridge at the back.
But we survived the day and had a pint in the Dahu, together with lunch ( a cereal bar.) We have now decided we need new (much lighter) skis!
By the way, this is the first week of the Paris Holidays, but thankfully the Parisians don't get up early.. Here is a pic of the Jardin Piste which we skied at about 10.15 before we started touring.
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| Us skinning up with shadow of plane |
On the way a small plane flew over - this is Neville's pic of us trudging up and the shadow of the plane.
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| Skiing down - you can just see me in the distance |
So we opted to follow the others (again) and ski down the way we had come up. And that was fantastic. See pic on right.
The walk up the other side was tough. This is Gordon in the foreground with John & me behind, but if you look carefully you can see our tracks coming down from the ridge at the back.
But we survived the day and had a pint in the Dahu, together with lunch ( a cereal bar.) We have now decided we need new (much lighter) skis!
By the way, this is the first week of the Paris Holidays, but thankfully the Parisians don't get up early.. Here is a pic of the Jardin Piste which we skied at about 10.15 before we started touring.
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