Combe du Machon

Yesterday we finally got around to exploring more of the Arete des Intrets.  That's the exposed ridge that runs down from the top of les Hauts Forts (the huge mountains directly above Avoriaz) to the Prodains cable car.

Perched on the cliff in the background, if you didn't know by now, is Avoriaz.

The snow on the Arete is still very good and we'll definitely be going back to explore the Snowcross Crozats if we can ever find it.

So first we skied the Arete des Intrets itself.  Very nice bumps, not too big and not too steep with pretty good snow.  Next we did the Combe du Machon.  This is a steep black.  And when i say steep i really mean vertical.  It's a close call between the Swiss Wall and the Combe du Machon.  The Combe is steeper in places, in my opinion, and narrower, and longer. 

It was the first experience i've had where your own mini avalanche is following you down the slope.  It got so bad that it looked like the ground was moving under my skis as the loose surface snow-dust and chunks of ice toppled down the slope.  Quite disconcerting really, so i stopped, waited for it to pass, and then carried on.  But seriously, the Combe is very steep.  The and the bumps were huge.  Surprisingly, it was also a bit crowded but then it was the Sunday of the half-term break.

Natalie on the Combe du Machon.  To try to give an idea of the stepth (there is so such a word) of the slope, i aligned the camera base with the slope itself so the horizon is how steep the slope is.

The majority of the crowd were cheating Muggles dropping into it from further down the Arete.  We did it right from the top, which starts in a very narrow gorge with a pinch-point about 50m in.  The Muggles were all dropping in past this point just to irritate me.

We finished off our tour of the Arete with some awesome off-piste between the Intrets chairlift and the huge over-hanging cliff that forms the wall of the Combe du Machon.  If i hadn't face-planted spectacularly on some really easy moguls to my great chagrin, i would have really enjoyed it.  Actually, it's a great run if you avoid the cliffs.  And you don't eat snow, face-first, at speed.

Here's that cliff edge i was talking about.