Season Diary – Day 4

Wednesday 10th December 2025 - Tignes, France

A loop up and over Col Pers really drives home the meaning of all-terrain skiing …

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So today started the same as any other day, and the same as many other days this week – we set off for Val d’Isere and up the cascades chairlift to the very to of the resort.

That’s where the similarities end. From the top of the lift we undertook a traverse out to Col Pers, a saddle in the ring of mountains that surrounds the Vallon side of Val d’Isere. I’ve skied over here a couple of times before, but late in the season when there was plenty of snow – so much to make the last attempt one of the best runs of my life.

This year was different. It was still super early in the season, and there depth of snow cover – despite the fast start in the Alps – was already limited as dry conditions and wind scraping left lots of off piste slopes bare.

We had to take the lower traverse in, the t-bar not open to allow access to the upper traverse line, which meant a bootpack up to the high traverse line. So far, so Col Pers. What was different this time was the bootpack was over rocks and heather rather than through snow.

And, at the top of the Col, it wasn’t much better. Normally the drop into the backside of Col Pers is a little hop off a ledge or finding a gap in the overhanging snow to slide into. This time there wasn’t enough snow for that!

Instead, one by one and gingerly as all hell, we had to bootpack down into the bowl on the far side. And gingerly it was, too. My boots were getting on for six years old at this point, and were created before gripwalk was ever a thing. Add into the mix six years of pretty relentless use each season and the soles – already smooth out of the box – were becoming slippery as all hell.

Using my skis and poles and resting all my weight on them, plus a helping hand from our guide, I was able to soldier through and make it out the other side.

Not that the other side was much better.

This part of Val d’Isere is a mix of different aspects and slope angles, and drops a considerable distance from the Col to the valley floor above the Fornet gondola. Add into the mix the lack of snow for the past few days, the wind scraping and moving much of this snowpack around, and the sun hitting it with warm near-spring-like conditions, and every turn felt different.

Every turn was a different layer of crust, or powder, or corn facets. Every turn was completely unexpected, and with my fitness lacking it didn’t take long for me to really struggle. I hate skiing on crust at the best of times – I’m not a lightweight guy, so asking me to ski light is like asking Michaela Shiffrin not to win World Cup medals; it just ain’t gonna happen. As a result, I always break through the crust and have to fight my way before the next turn.

Another fascinating thing happened on the way down, as we picked our way between patches of heather and rock. For the first time I heard audible “whumping”, signs that the weak layer in the snowpack created by faceted snow was collapsing under my weight. This was nothing to be alarmed over – I was stood on an almost flat surface with nowhere for any potential slide to run to, but it did make us stop and thing about the consequences if that whumping was allowed to run over a steep slope in consequential terrain.