SnowSlider - Blogging From the mountains by ise

Today was much improved on yesterday in terms of weather, yesterday was really flat light and along with an increase in numbers on the piste it wasn’t really the best ski day. After a late start this morning we decided on the spur of the moment to go show shoeing around Zinal. I’ve done this route before but Julie hadn’t and it’s really quite excellent and it starts quite literally outside our front door which is convenient.

We’ve just bought ourselves some new snowshoes, we both have new pairs of Inook raquettes, the Odyssey for me and the Odalys for Julie basically the mens/womens versions of the same raquette.

Today was the first chance to use them and Col Des Mosses looked the place to go, the snowfall from a few weeks ago needs a refresh so anywhere low isn’t really good and there are trails at Col Des Mosses starting from 1400m and rising to 1750m which I thought would give good snow cover and that turned out right. It was a bit thin in the trees at a couple of points but the beauty of raquettes is that you can leave them on and not damage them like skis.


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With the recent snow falls today was the one of first days we’ve seen much sun in Zinal for a few days so I took the chance to get out on some snowshoes around the valley.

I think I’m probably the first person to take this route this season, apart from a few animal tracks I was breaking trail all the way round which adds a certain amount of effort. In fact, there’s as much snow on the track as I’ve seen really, I’m not sure it was practical at all last winter in large sections. The trail is surprisingly sketchy in places though and it’s awkward in fresh snow to say the least.

I was testing a pair of Inook snow shoes from Zinal Sports which I thought were excellent although I found it a little awkward to engage the heel risers on them and a couple of times I nudged the heel lock and locked the shoe down which is slightly awkward. It’s probably one of those things that needs practice though. [ updated : I see on the Inook website that the new model of the Expert I was using has a redesigned heel riser which looks much better.]

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click on photograph for larger version

There’s not been any fresh snow in the ski area and it’s still a little busy so it’s not the best skiing conditions. So, we decided to take a hike up to cabane du Petit Mountet at 2142m which is up near the Zinal Glacier. It’s not actually open currently but it’s a good walk!

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