That's it, I am outta here!

[Mulletizer]

I worked my last shift this morning, the car is packed and a hot meal is waiting for me on the table. In an hour I'll be on my way to downtown LA Grave.

I know I'll be seeing some of you suckers there. I might be off the inet radar for a while but will be able to pick up PMs periodically. If anyone else wants help or is coming or considering it get in touch with me that way. And if any JONGs want help too you can suggest they contact me.

A couple of words on Buster's JH proposal: very cool indeed. I feel deeply honoured that he suggested me. If it works out it'll be awesome; if it doesn't I won't be suffering too badly this winter anyway and I am sure there are other very worthy people (prolly more worthy) for the proposal. Anyone going to nominate anyone else? I think they should. I would have done if I could think of someone...

Hopefully I'll be around here a bit. If not, have a great winter and stay safe. I hope to see a load of you.

[CS]

Best of luck dude. Have a good, safe winter, take lots of pics, and give us a nice season ending compilation when it starts to heat up around here.

[Meathelmet]

Drive safely and keep some info comming from LG if you have a access to InterNjet.

Titties.

[truth]

Rock on Alister.

[hop]

Say hi to all those clowns that live there for me. It's looking grim right now, but there's a very slim chance I'll make it over there. Have fun!

[Schmear]

Congratulations, Al. More time to write (and ski and drink beer) now, eh?

[Mulletizer]

Made it. The car performed and the place I had rented is cooler than I expected. There's snow down to 1000m but it's thin below P1. SC pushed back their opening due to "lack of snow" despite a foot in resort. Not happy because I bought a season ticket due to their early December opening. Gggrrrr. Still life does not suck too much.

Sorting out gear still (and a couple of other matters) but hoping to ski soon. See some of you guys soon, I hope.

[bad_roo]

Damn straight. Maybe I should inherit your 'counting days' line...

[Ripzalot]

Made it.

excellent. keep us aprised of your progress down there. 'thin down to p1' doesnt sound too bad at the moment. if you can get to p1, thats good enuff for me!

i'm back from zermatt/cervinia yesterday. italian side got dumped on with up to 60cms reported. around here (lake geneva), nada. how much fresh did they get in LG last week?

[Mulletizer]

OPening day in La Grave today. Lots of snow but scary conditions. Mrs Mullet and I put track no 5 and 6 down the upper Vallons. Nice snow, soft windpack. Seemed stable enough for us to hit it but could do with consolidation. Then to P2, back up and to Chacel. I made some mistakes here. Some shit scary snow, very wind affected. We thought the most sheltered way down would be the middle so headed for the Banane. There was a fracture line near the top and someone buried at the edge of the lake, the first person to have skied it. When I got there there was one Frenchie still digging, having just found the victim under 2m of snow. Alive and very lucky having been buried for at least twenty mins, prolly more than 30. Statistically he should be dead. I decided it was time to get off the mountain then and to have a good look at the decisions I had taken myself. And I definitely cocked up because I was too excited after a great first run. Have some avy training coming up soon, will be worth every penny. Stay safe.

Mullet

[truth]

Read the LCC avy thread and be safe.

[Mulletizer]

PS The first run was epic though! Fast big turns on ultra smooth snow. I got about the 4th set of bubbles up and there was almost no one agead of me. Just a bit shaken up by the later events. Be careful up there - I wasn't careful enough today.

[edg]

Sounds good, on the whole, Mulletizer... What's the word on cocilidation of the snow pack. The pre-storm report I read was less than encouraging, suggesting almost none between the old and new snow (not that that's a problem on most South facing slopes).

edg

[verbier61]

take care but have fun
have fun but take care

[bad_roo]

Not only is that person lucky to be buried under 2m of snow for almost half and hour and come out breathing but it's doubly fortunate that they weren't punched straight through the ice of Lac du Puyvachier. That's been done before.

Hit many rocks in Vallons de la Meije?

[bad_roo]

How high was the crown on that avy in Banane?

Taken any pics yet?

[subtle plague]

I want to know too.
because the reporst do not look very snowy. neither does the 2400m webcam.
The have been quite a few avalaches going of because of the shitty conditions. 2 people dead in Lech(arlberg) etc.

[Mulletizer]

Snowpack poorly consolidated, bitterly cold, I am off the mountain until it settles. Not too many rocks in upper vallons or Chancel if you are careful. Chancel traverse OK, Vallons traverse apparently rocky. Don't know about lower Vallons but apparently ok to ski to the Romanche. Out of credit, will post more later.

TeleAl, if you see this SMS or ring me and I'll give you the details you need. +33679252765

[Glisseur]

Sounds sweet and scary, good ol' LG in a nutshell. Can you ski the trees at all or is the snow pack to thin?

Expect me to show up some time late next week or so.

[bad_roo]

Expect me to show up some time late next week or so.

You still haven't learned. Early bird gets the corduroy.

[Glisseur]

You still haven't learned. Early bird gets the corduroy.

I'm just waiting for the lifties to dig out the Pisten Bully first, it's been standing up at P3 for about 15 years now without being used. Weird.

Out of credit, will post more later.

Does that mean you don't have an Internt connection at your place. Think you owe me more than a few minutes after last years Internet skiing...

[Mulletizer]

A bit more: I passed a 20cm crown on my second turn, almost at the top. Below the couloir it had ripped all around; the crown there was a good 30-40cms.

To explain about the snowpack. After the late November snow everything consolidated nicely. However, in early December there was a big thaw, all the snow upto about 1650+ on the S Side, N face melted completely. Above this the snow surface melted. Then there was a hard refreeze which has made a hideous sliding surface between about 1650 and 2700+ which is still there. Then it snowed hard, was very windy and stayed really cold meaning the snow hasn't consolidated that well and the avy conditions have been nasty. Then the lift opened. Then people started setting avys off. Hopefully things will settle down. Things are already looking better but some of the classic runs may be off the menu for a few weeks.

Glisseur: you expecting to stay with me? Have been expecting to hear from you. Inet access dodgy so text or call me if you can. The number's up there