Ski touring - again! But today I had a target, not just walk for an hour or whatever, I wanted to get to the top of the mountain.
The forecast was a bit snowy overnight but just cloudy/clearing by about 6am. Which was my start time.
Didn't actually start till 6.20, and it was too dark to see what the weather high up was doing, so off I went. Was just dark and seemed clear for a while, but as I got to the 30 minute mark, yuck! Walked into cloud and then realised that it was sort of snowing! Well, I think it was snowing - I'd layered up so much that I was quite warm and so any 'flakes' that landed on me melted! And it was too dark to see if it was snow!! LOL
Little bit of fresh snow -
Anyway, kept going BUT I did text a mate. Normally if the vis is good I leave it that I've told a couple of people the night before that I have the plan, and in good vis there's so little chance of anything going wrong on the walk up and I'd be easily spotted by the first pisteurs if it did on the way down (they are usually out and about around 7am). But this morning it didn't feel that good! I figured that Rich would be up as they run a chalet so it seemed sort of sensible to text him and let him know where I was. I just sent updates till I skied back and then sent one last one once I was back in Centre.
So, just after texting Rich, I really struggled to walk up a really steep bit. Not because I couldn't but cos my skis just kept slipping - which is the first time for me (happens sometimes if you go too steep, but I was crossing, not going straight up!!). Anyway - took my skis off to see if I could walk up with them a bit (stoopid idea!) and realised that there was packed snow under the skins
No idea why that should happen and it's not happened before!! So I need to have a chat with another tourer sometime to find out if it was the weird conditions (really wasn't cold) or something I was doing!!
Really odd-
The view down as it got lighter -
Finally I got to see the top of the mountain I was aiming for -
But, a bit later, and a bit further up,
So I quit. Light was flat as hell and it was still quite cloudy in places, and since I actually have goggles this winter, I thought I'd change the lenses for the low light version so that I had a better chance of getting down safer!! Well sodding hell!! Ten minutes later I gave up. No way could I refit the low light lens, or the original lens
So, just put my glasses on and had a very gentle (and slightly wobbly - cloud always makes me feel unbalanced!!) ski back to my mates cafe!!
When I got back down, it was partly clearing, but still cloud over the mountain I was aiming for!! (It's the easier of the two!!) Well, a bit of cloud, it's the one behind the trees to the right of the one that is clearly visible with no cloud on it!!!!
But, although I'm bloody knackered (didn't sleep well last night) I am quite pleased I made it as far as I did in those conditions. Here's hoping next week there will be some good weather mornings and I can try again
