Snowcross Crozats

A Snowcross is a semi-off-piste ski run.  Its semi-off-piste because the run is never graded or bashed by heavy machinery, although access to it might be.  However, although the run is not graded, it's signposted to prevent you skiing off a cliff or end up walking in an Alpine forest, rather than skiing it.  So really a Snowcross is the best of both worlds, you get great off-piste adventure without the fear of skiing into the unknown.

Natalie heading towards Snowcross Crozats.

Actually, on the subject of off-piste,  it seems that most Winter-Sports insurers these days accept that you can go off-piste, and the only restriction they put in place is that you can't ski where they've explicitly closed the area, say because of high avalanche risk or packs of marauding bears randomly picking off boarders - not a bad thing.  But you should check out your insurance small-print about off-piste anyway.

Natalie, having headed to the Snowcross Crozats and now on the Snowcross Crozats.

Having said that, the off-piste skiing in Chamonix was largely roped off with warning signs saying you're leaving the marked area.  An insurer would probably leave you at these ropes.  Whereas, here in the Portes du Soleil, there are very few such ropes.  i wonder if the insurers know about these inconsistencies and, therefore, if they realise that they might be covering people doing more "dangerous" activities but in resorts where these areas aren't roped off.  It seems to me that, because of this, the insurer should insure you for skiing, regardless of what you do or where you go even if that means increasing the premium.  That's the risk they take.  This page has some very interesting reports on insurance and off-piste skiing.

Clouds can be quite pretty really.  Natalie took this photo and we've done no post-processing to it.  The Alps really are that gorgeous.

While i was on that site,  i found this extremely interesting article by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle written in 1894.  He was blogging about his experience with Alpine skiing a hundred years ago.  He writes:

The first time you try to turn, .... It must be done without presenting one's heels to the slope, and this is the only way.

So, in 1894, Sir Arthur realised what is still taught today on day one of your ski lessons - you've got to get your weight forward!

But i digress, today we skied the Snowcross Crozats.  Overnight we probably had 2cm of snow at the top so it was a perfect day to do it.  For those familiar with the area, this Snowcross is just over the lip of the Coupe de Monde run on the opposite side of the run to the Combe du Machon.  It is superb!  And it's massive, the off-piste that extends as far as you can see around the bowl of the valley and is reachable with a long traverse.

We came down it two different ways.  The first is more off-pistey and not signposted.  As you're approaching the trees, at the bottom of the main drop where it flattens out, head left through a narrow gully.  Following the ski tracks will take you down through some scrub and small pine trees right at the top of the treeline.  And, in fact, here's Natalie just above the said treeline.

And here's me showing off those baby pine trees i was talking about.  Yes, i know, i have a bit of a ski-tan going on.  It was extremely hot though which isn't helping in this photo.

 

This route is great, but unfortunately you end up in the trees and this path in the below photo was completely bare of snow in one small section of it, which meant dismounting the skis and walking the last 50m to the piste.  i do believe i've mentioned that you shouldn't follow me before.

So after doing this version of the Snowcross, which isn't signposted, we decided to actually try following the signposts this time.  This route takes you down some extremely fun bumps and ends up on the Coupe de Monde itself but much lower down.  Either way you do it, you end up in the same place and ultimately you take Le Crôt, a blue run which ends up at the Prodains cable-car.  Of course, you take the three-person chair back up to the Arete des Intrets, rather than standing in the cable-car queue.

We were only out for a short half-day and so we headed back down our now favourite off-piste run on the ridge between the cliffs of Combe du Machon and the cliffs above the Bleue Arare piste.

If you've never seen a white-out before, this is it.  As i was taking this photo the clouds started to move in.  Before i'd put the camera away i could barely see Natalie.

This was interesting because we don't know this particular area too well and the clouds were just getting thicker and thicker.  It was a very strange experience being able to hear the chairlift but not being able to see it or anyone else or any poles or markers.  At one point we were standing on a drop off debating the route to take but not being able to see the bottom of the drop off or, more importantly, what was going to happen next.

i think we made the right choice to head further down the ridge and take another, shallower drop off further down.  Then we were in a gully or bowl when Natalie said that it looked like we were on a piste.  Happily she was right as the poles at the side materialized, literally, out of thin air and thick mist.  We know this place pretty well by now, but in a white-out, we might as well be on another planet.