Sunshack: Great Snow in the Anniviers

Just back from a terrific fortnight on and off-piste in the Val D'Anniviers. The slopes were mostly uncrowded, the company was good and the sun shone at lunchtimes. After seeing Andy glance into the Abondance itinerary twice when on the draglift, I lured him in.

This was his first day back on skis this season, so probably like jumping into a cold bath, the snow was good though.
We had some fresh snow to play in, though it did hamper the visibility a little on one day.

This is the view down to the Bendolla Gondola station with the restaurant on the right. We also briefly met up with our friend ise at Bendolla, he was quite tired from a trip on skins to one of the mountain huts for lunch. We managed to get one run completed together before the day closed.

I managed to hook up with friend JT from Snowheads, who was skiing with a group of friends, Yve, Tony, Bevis and Robin. I dropped into Abondance (again),with JT and friends and Andy took a cruise and met us at the bottom.

The snow conditions were excellent and several of the steep black runs were open and complete. The next day we went to Zinal and skied the Chamois piste which leads back to Grimentz. It's a long black slope which ends in a long itinerary path through the woods, quite a long route.

During our stay we also visited Vercorin, which has lots of tree lined runs, and some which are surprisingly steep, for what looks like an easy cruising area.

We spent a day in St Luc on the opposite side of the Anniviers. It's a lovely sunny area with a good range of slopes. We both wanted to try out climbing on skins with touring skis, so went up to the Hotel Weisshorn for a long lunch after an hour's climb. Apparently it should have taken us half an hour, but it was the first time!

There is no road to the Hotel Weisshorn in the winter, so it'skis and skins, raquettes or hiking boots. I managed to slice open one knuckle trying to fit the skins, so after leaving lots of blood on the Prilet slope, the skis/skins/rucksack...etc Andy had to finish the job. The food was great and it was well worth the climb.

Andy had rented touring boots, which started out feeling comfortable, but that feeling soon wore off, and he had sore patches on his feet next day. I tried to get touring boots, but the only hire pair in my size were much too big, so I climbed in my alpine boots, with the clips undone.

Andy discovered the value of locking the heel down on the bindings when making a descent on skins.

The snow conditions were good enough for finding uncut snow right through our stay. We found plenty of good powder terrain in the Orzival area, though finding just the right time of day to ski it, could be tricky as conditions were quite warm on some days and the snow could be crusty.

We hooked up with ise and fellow Facebook Anniviers Group member Rej B to find some hidden stashes, Skied right through lunch, stopping just before 3pm.