SnowSlider – Blogging From the mountains by ise

I think today was about the busiest I’ve ever seen the lift here, each time I looked out there seemed to be a queue. Fortunately I’d not intended to go skiing today so it wasn’t a big deal. Up the valley towards the glacier isn’t great conditions currently, there’s a risk of avalanches from the unsecured slopes either side and it’s not a great time to go that so we took a route I’ve used a few times down the valley. There’s a nice little route we use crossing the forest and tracking along the river for a way that’s always enjoyable.

That pile of stones is an old lime oven, apparently last used around 1880 there’s the remains of several ovens and the activity along the valley floor.

Looking up there (right) at the Garde de Bordon (3310m) or actually the small peak on the ridge leading to Garde de Bordon itself, as far as I know it doesn’t have a name. There’s a volume of snow to come down of the ridge though yet unless they decide to bomb it from a helicopter which they occasionally do.

Looking up the valley at Mont Durand (left) and the Besso (right).

I did some nordic skiing over here a few weeks and it was obvious that the snowshoeing would be pretty good so when I needed somewhere to go today this seemed an obvious idea. We set off using one of the winter paths but this meandered a bit too much so we took a direct route in the forest to get to the Bison Ranch. We’d planned to get some lunch here which was fine but the menu was a bit limited. soup or bison sausage only, fortunately both turned out to be great with some vin-chaud and home made bread.

It’s holiday time in mainstream locations but places like Nods are pretty much untouched by holiday traffic so we were the only people we saw on snowshoes all day with the exception of a couple who turned up at the restaurant at the same time.