January 22nd, 2015 - Argentiere, France - Day 158
Great day today, which included work in the morning and then a ski tour just outside of Flegree in the afternoon. This was the first tour we took on our own outside of the resort, so we were all a little bit nervous, but we did our homework and it was a similar area to where our guide had taken us, so we felt fairly comfortable. We left the apartment around 10:30 and were putting our skins on by around 11:30.
We had to take a chairlift to the summit of Flegree and then ski down. That ski down let us know the snow on the way down from any climb would be pretty sketchy.
Stacie enjoying a rare groomed section on our first decent
The weather was perfect for touring and we just soaked in the scenery while getting a great workout in.
Heading up
The tour took us about an hour and a half and we climbed roughly 2000 vertical feet. The views were spectacular. It was so nice to be out in the backcountry again.
Further on up
When we reached our destination Peter identified a good spot for lunch and we sat and enjoyed the view along with a sandwich (granola for Stacie). There is not a better place to have lunch anywhere I can think of.
The rocks were our lunch spot. You can see our skin track below across the frozen lake just to the left of center screen.
After we ate we started back down the hill. As predicted the snow was not good. There were a couple good turns as we started, but it was short lived. We picked our way carefully down the mountain and made it home safely.
When we got home we found a sparkling clean apartment - Lea had been busy again. I then ran to the grocery store and boulangerie (my daily ritual) and Stacie made an amazing pork roast and mashed potato dinner.
As I was catching up on email I looked out the window and saw Grand Montets shining in the dusk. The light was just perfect and I was able to get a good long exposure picture.
We finished the day with a double dose of the Newsroom to finish Season 1.