Tuesday was spent in La Clusaz charging pistes and recovering from the Gervasutti and Paddys day. Heading into town early on wednesday I could already feel the heat at 7:45.  This was a good indication that we would have to move fast to ski something that wasn’t running water.

The South East face of the Aiguille d’Entreve is a beautiful line that works its way down from near the summit of the Entreve, towards the mid station of the helbronner cable car in Italy. Hoping for spring like conditions around midday we slowly plodded up and started traversing the ridge about 10:30. We were going to complete the traverse and return to our skis but after seeing a group drop in we knew we would have to ski it quickly to get the good snow.

The upper, 45′, section of the face was a little variable and chopped up but after a few turns it opened up to nice smooth spring snow all the way down to the bergschrund. Descending the glacier back to the station was a mixture of wind blown hard snow and deep thick slush that took strength to ski fast, especially on my skinny skis again!

Sitting with a good Italian coffee in the Torino refuge, over looking the face we just skied was a nice change to the coffee from the midi bakery I’m used to. Skiing the Valley Noir in perfect chalk down to the James Bond track we also had a little water skiing by Montenvers. Only taking skis off for the last 500m of the track before Plannards the James Bond is slowly going out of action. Lest hope for some much needed snow this weekend and make a few more powder turns before this season is out.