A selection of stories of life in Serre Chevalier and beyond in March 2025
Read the March 2025 ski blog from Serre Chevalier as we ski the pistes, skate the cross-country, ski off-piste and ski-tour away from the resort and ski slack-country in resort
29th March
The last two days I’ve never seen all the parking areas for the various ski-touring sectors so busy, again this must be a by-product of Covid, in that people discovered ski-touring, as well as “working from home” (sic), and maybe conditions nowhere near as good in the Savoie and hence all the Grenobleoise come up, plus there were quite a few Spanish crews in their vans.
Plus as the snowline retreats up from the valleys so options are more limited.
But still loads to do and get away from people, but do keep thinking how lucky we are with the slack-country we have.
Yesterday was en-famille touringwith my daughter and OH.
Trouble is trying to suss a route out that is not too difficult to climb and yet still offers good skiing, and I screwd up with one one route choice which saw us retreating away from what would have involved quite an exposed kick-turn, so we then spent 20mins on kick-turns on easier gradients but when you really need them is invariably when people new to KT’s end up in the V of death, sliding backwards Laughing
After much “how much further” and various other comments reminiscent of an 8 year old in the car on a long journey Laughing we transitioned up on the Galibier road and scored some very sweet spring snow – and a couple of hours later, when all the rattles had been put back in the pram she was well stoked at what she had achieved.
But there is a mental discipline required, and it tends to come with maturity, and that’s why you don’t tend to see too many younger millennials doing it on a regular basis.
Plus skiing off-piste like that with blind rollers and undulating terrain is quite challenging, especially when she busted her foot last year in her first off-piste forays, but there were some proud dad moments when she was skiing well Very Happy
This was quite steep and evidently quite daunting for her as she saw the line from the road she had to ski!
You can see the Combeynot face in front of me and all the various sectors, we can’t take Mutley there, and as you can just about make out from the skintrack lines, quite a few KT’s are required
26th March
Well, yesterday, I went looking for some Slack-Country and was a little bewildered as weather conditions were not ideal, in that it was a bit too warm overnight, maybe, and there was cloud building very quickly.
I did a few runs up from Pointillas testing the snow and bumped into a friend who, as he admitted later, had no idea how the aspect and gradient of the slope could cause such a change in the snowpack.
In the end I made the call to go for it, as I was more worried about the ever-increasing cloud, not so much for the lack of a melt as that was already happening, but more to do with the potential of flat light as that would not be lot of fun.
And it was pretty damn good, ok not quite as peach as last week, but still right up there.
Once I’d climbed back up it was time to ski back down the Vallons, circa 13:00 and was that heavy or what!
Think I was the only idiot trying to ski at that time of day 🙂
This morning went up to the Lautaret with the OH and mutt and that was very good indeed, perfect spring-snow, and only four others in our sector, totally untracked after the snow at the weekend, though the Pic Blanc sector was mobbed rolling eyes
They’ve started work on the tunnel before the Col again and there were some pretty major works going on with diggers, earth (snow) removers and trucks transporting it all away, looks like they’re going to be working on the roof now.
Then after the ski popped up to Freds and they were already clearing the Galibier road from the looks of things, and then once up there (it was rammed, like High season with zero parking) could see that it was the annual trade show for snow clearing machines, must have been around six different machines!
Monday 24th March
It often gets to a point towards the end of the season when you just want the sunshine and spring snow, for at least you know where you’re at 🙂
Last evening, circa 19:00, and it was dumping, though as it turned out, only for an hour or so, and it was very slushy, and we awoke to snow on the terrace, the second day in a row, but not bluebird.
I met up with the Monetier Swedes for first lifts and we thrashed down the various pistes with varying levels of “fresh” snow, but lower down was quickly getting heavy and was quite bumpy with the tracks from the previous days, not what I’m used to 🙂
My legs were screaming keeping up with one of them and then we decided to take a look off Yret and we opted for Montagnolle and had a classic lost in translation as I suggested skiing down and then skinning back up the Vallon Tabuc but my mate thought that was a suggestion for another day, so I traversed right across missing out on a nice line while he skied down.
Then we hooked up and the run-out was its normal arduous journey not helped by my leaden legs, and not having done it for a while, so was not too sure what to expect around the various bends, and it was a first in that I can’t recall a time when there has been no avalanche debris across the run-out from a couple of the couloirs above.
After that it was a quick rest whilst we went back up again and went exploring off Yret down to the lower Jacksons, I left my mate and another Swede who had hooked up with us as I had skins so I carried on down but viz and the snow made for a more challenging descent and then the climb back up in the humid cloud that had rolled in made for a very sweaty climb.
Then, a final thrash came back down, and I was well-fecked.
I think the only people that can really enjoy these conditions are the snowboarders, or you just ski and keep high without going back down, such as what I was managing yesterday.
So now we wait for the all-important freeze/melt, which I think will start tonight, and or first lifts again to ski the piste before taking a look off the back to see what’s happening, but the rest of the week is showing potential Cool
Sunday 23rd March
This morning was nigh on a repeat with snow on the terrace and then another +10cm up top, so it was first lifts with @KenX, and skied our usual stashes and it was so quiet for 90mins or so and then as more people turned up so the snow started to get heavier, so was out with the skins and a couple of climbs to then ski a lovely N face, a great finale to a great morning, and again weather closed in and now rain on the terrace.
Saturday 22nd March
Well, what started as a very relaxed ski-tour did, in fact, become very stressful.
As I was climbing up towards the Galibier road, I saw a huge slide had come down right across the road and down into the gulley below, which I’d never seen before in nigh on 15 years, so I started to get a wee bit paranoid about the conditions, and thought about heading back down.
I decided to carry on and soon became aware of snow-kiters traversing above me, and then I realised what probably caused the slide; the kiters above traversing and cutting the snow, which then started to slide and propagated across the slope.
So I was quite nervous it would happen again, but then I was able to get into better terrain, less exposed, and I started to think about how out of order this was, as many many people ski-tour along the road to get to various lines and here’s these guys putting us all in real danger.
As I climbed up onto more of a plateau where the five or so were playing around, I noticed that many didn’t have backpacks, so I took my Arva out and went into search mode, and out of the five, only one was transmitting a signal!
I then shouted at one and he came over and I asked him why he didn’t have any gear and he said they didn’t need it (which is bollox anyway) but I replied what about me if you bury me, and with that I just got a classic Gallic shrug.
Later that evening, I was telling a mate who does a lot of touring up there, and he said I should report the incident to the PGHM, he has now gone on to post on social media about it.
Thursday 20th March
I didn’t have a plan yesterday morning as I was not too sure about the weather, so I opted to go up around 10:30 as it was sunnier than I thought it would be, which is important for the mechanics of Spring-Snow.
The initial plan was to go off the back from top of Eychauda down to Les Combes and then climb back up to Chalet Serre Blanc, except that plan was scuppered by Eychauda drag closed due to a big GS race event, so went off from the Mea and it was probably one of the best all-time Spring descents.
The snow was cooked to perfection, and it was super smooth, like a carpet. As I often say, when it’s like that, it’s as good as powder, and it’s not at all technical to ski; it’s really easy!
The lower you ski down, the more South facing aspects are cooked too much and are on the heavy side, so you then ski more W’ly facing slopes with the net result you can ski all the way down into the valley, negating the traverse, but that then means you have a longer climb back up, but it’s worth it!
2.5 km & 800m descent and then less vertical for the climb back up to the Cucumelle chair.
So that’s twice in one week: Monday powder, and then Spring snow yesterday, and again no-one else around Very Happy
I then beasted myself on the climb, doing just over 620m in under 70mins.
You can see from the photos over the time I was doing this how the weather changed, so I was lucky!
Looking across to the route up to the Col de la Pisse.
Final pitch to the valley floor, hopefully, that will hold the snow for a while longer and maybe get a further top-up.
The climb back up.
Wedenesday 19th March
Today was a truly classic Spring ski-touring day, slowly introducing my daughter to touring, which is not easy with a Millenial daughter 🙂
She was very concerned about the snow & terrain and whether she could ski it, plus not helped by her insoles being in her downhill boots, so she was suffering from calf pain, and as ever it’s hard to get your head around walking uphill, but the weather was fantastic and the snow transformed to absolute perfection, you really can’t get better than that.
And after the first few turns, she was blown away by how easy it was to ski, and then later on, she ripped down the line she was paranoid about on the way up!!
Pistes of Serre Che in the background.
Sunday 16th March
Basically the unsettled theme of last week continued, though I think Viz was worse.
Saturday was in hindsight way better than yesterday as I could ski a lot of our normal stashes, though light was flat.
Yesterday thought I’d struck lucky as uber dense cloud gave way to brighter conditions above 2,300 so out with the skins to climb up to 2,600 and had one sweet powder descent. I then climbed a second time as weather closed in and out was so bad that I had to ski down following my skin track and the holes of my poles as reference plus I knew what the line gradient was.
Then, on Monday, we awoke to a long overdue bluebird; last was exactly a week ago. I’d been planning a route that we’ve not done for a good few years, a W/WNW facing line which would give us a 350/400m descent and then a 250m climb back, depending on how good the snow would be, the better the snow the longer the descent etc
As we started off, the plan was a short ski and then out with the skins for a short climb to then drop off down into a valley, however, the snow where we started skiing was way better than expected so we just carried on.
For sure, lower down, it was not brilliant, but the top 2/3rds made up for that.
And to me, this is the pictorial definition of powder when you see a smoking trail behind you 🙂
Thursday 13th March
Yesterday, knowing viz could well be an issue and wanting to have some peace and quiet, we went touring with the mutt in an area that is great when the viz is limited, and it indeed, it was a great call as we only saw two others and as you can see viz was great, and the tree skiing is normally superb up there!
However climbing up and breaking trail, I became suspicious of the snowpack as it kept collapsing under me, which made it really hard work.
However we both thought that skiing fast with the 10cms of fresh would not be an issue, but it was rather challenging skiing as you can see in the image below, the snow depth was nigh on a meter and that gap under the fresh was causing the issue, and the OH said as I turned so I was gouging great furrows, and my knees certainly feel it this morning.
Really weird as that was North facing above 2,000m and it was more like rotten snow, all I can think is that cloud must have engulfed the area with a whole load of humidity etc often you hope for a clear night to suck the moisture more out of the snowpack and that just didn’t happen, anyway still managed some nice turns every now and again.
Wednesday 12th March
Today, we skied over in Montgenevre with a guide I’ve known for nigh on 30 years and scored some excellent lines, and then later resorted to skinning and hiking to get away and ski more untracked as elsewhere was getting tracked out.
The viz yesterday again was way better than expected, and this is looking across to one of my favourite sectors which we call Telly Tubby land.
Monday 10th March
Today was a brilliant day, as I’m sure many experienced.
We stayed high all day, not venturing below 2,000m and enjoyed some great lines with no one around, finishing the day off with one small skin for a north-facing descent.
Then, on the final ski back down just below “Skid Alley” (thankfully), down from Cote Chevalier chair came across this guy on the piste who looked in trouble. Turned out 85yr old Brit who was just too knackered to ski & take his skis off, KenX and I stayed with him and tried to coax him down, falling 5-7 or so times more; it was a very long end to the day. And in the end, top of final run down to Le Bez I took his skis away & he walked back to the hotel, but he was very stubborn with that suggestion but we were amazed he’d not hurt himself already. But there were a few Brigitte Jones moments; as I thought he was behind me snow-ploughing as I was trying to slow him down, only for me to hear him going whoooooooooooaaaaaaa as he skied past me out of control to crash yet again Laughing
Bit of stealth skiing, after the climb, waiting for a break in the cloud, and then take it!
8th March
So it’s been quite a week with some excellent Spring ski-touring and yesterday did some more classic slack-country, and a route we’ve not done for a good few years and it was certainly a mini-adventure for my mate whose birthday it was, scoring some lovely Spring and then lower down having to get over some streams 🙂
6th March
Social ski-tour back up to the Gardiole with the Swedelish gang, a mixture of Brits and Swedes, and of course Ullr.
Again the e-mtb was used as I suspected parking might be an issue as we all crammed into my van to drive up the Granon road and then I deposited the group off at the snow-line and then drove back down to find a suitable parking place, and then cyled back up the bike to lock it up.
Climbing up we took a very easy pace as there was a chill breeze blowing as well as cloud building which together can really hamper the all important snow transformation.
But in the end it was again way better than expected as we skied down constantly changing and checking the aspects of our lines to ensure the best possible spring snow to ski.
A great day out with a great bunch of friends.
And then towards to very end I tried to ski on one ski some snow that was only one ski width wide and you can see the ensuing result 🙂
5th March
Maybe one of the best descents of the season today?
Left it a little later than the day before to go over the back again, having a coffee, killing time at the top of Bachas to hopefully let the snow transform a little more.
And the snow had cooked to perfection all the way down on the various aspects, and I did a first in that I skied all the way down to the torrent and transitioned there which meant a longer climb back up, but the math is still pretty good at circa 1,000m descent for 600m climbing Cool
And just me and our tracks from yesterday.
Tuesday 4th March
Always say when you score good Spring snow, it’s almost as good as powder!
Today, we took a friend off the back, and later, he said that was the best day of the season. Then, he said that was his best day of the year so far!
In hindsight, I think we could have been 30 minutes later, and then the lower West facing would have been cooked far better, but again, I’m being fussy.
I might go take a look again tomorrow to see. That said, it’s a moveable feast depending on the overnight freeze.
Monday 3rd March
Back out with the e-mtb, (image top of page), riding up to 1,950m, and it was wonderfully quiet,t which may have had to do with the long approach hence, I used the e-mtb) and there was only me and one snow-shoer plus a platoon of cadets on exercise getting ready to climb up to the barracks at the Col.
As I was 250m from the summit, a lone skier appeared, being chased by his dog, and they were the only others I saw up there.
Snow was nigh on cold up at the summit, though disappointingly had not transformed too well lower down as hoped, but ooodles of potential and just hardly anyone up there.
Ullr knows to take advantage of the shelter atop La Gardiole.
Check out January’s 2025 blog here
Check out February’s 2025 blog here
