Ski touring in the Queryas

Loiper club members, Tim, Penny, Robert and Alan, plus a friend Philip from Dorset, had a great week of ski touring (telemark and alpine) in the Queryas area, southern French Alps, arranged by Pyrenees Odyssey. We stayed in a small friendly hotel, Maison de Gaudissard which was very French – we were the only Brits! Richard, our guide, was very good indeed.

We started the week with appalling snow conditions – it was the end of January and, although very cold, it hadn’t snowed since mid December. But it got gradually better after the second day and we had a huge dump of snow at the end of the week (24 hours continual snowfall from mid-afternoon Thursday). So with poor visibility (and too much snow!) we spent our last day in the little local ski resort, Moline en Queryas, and skied on at least 30cm of fresh snow (twice that much off-piste). Telemarking heaven!!

Penny surveying the ascent on Day 3. We skied up to the centremost col at 2600m.
Tricky skiing on the way down
Day 5 – skiing up through Larch forests and up to a high col at 2700m
Nice curvy tracks on the descent