Fresh snowfall after weeks of sunshine!

It's been an amazing few weeks - day after day of sunshine - very cold around Christmas and New Year but the days are getting slightly longer and it has definitely been warmer lately.

We still have plenty of snow for snowshoeing and off piste skiing and conditions have generally been very stable.

But a top-up won't do any harm and that's what's happening today - light snow at the moment, but forecast for more or less the whole week with hopefully some sunny interludes from time to time.

So the up-coming Trekking in the Alps Snowshoeing trips should be good. There are still a few places left for trips in early February and March - notably a 4 day trip meeting 17 March and a 6 day trip 28 March.

The skiing has been really good too. I imagine the pistes are getting a touch icy but off-piste there are still places to go with lots of untracked slopes. And now is also the start of the heli-ski season.

The ski de fond pistes in the valleys are generally excellent, due to the cold January temps and the hefty snowfalls of December.

So we'll let this latest snowfall settle then get out there and lay down some tracks!

Fantastic conditions!

Day after day of fresh snowfall has given us the best December conditions in many years. There is snow right down in the low valleys at 400m and so you can imagine how good the conditioons are here up at 1300m.

Not without risk though - we have an avalanche risk of 3 or 4 on a scale of 5 and the latest layer of fresh snow has fallen on either wind-blown snow or wet heavy snow from a warm wind which blew last Sunday. But the forecast is good for the fore-seeable future it seems, so the snowpack will stabilise quickly.

Then it's just a question of getting those tracks in before all the holiday-makers who will arrive towards the end of next week.

Christmas Special Discount for my Snowshoeing trips!

The snow conditions are fabulous, what a great start to the winter! There are ski and snowshoe tracks appearing on the hillsides as I write this!

However, I know this is a difficult for time financially for most people and it seems like these hard times will continue for some months or more.

It's great to know that if you come out for a winter break the snow will be there and looking at Easyjet today I see that flights for this winter are still a good price, outside of the half term holidays anyway.

But to make things very slightly easier for people to come snowshoeing, I am offering a Christmas Special Discount on advertsied prices for my 4 and 6 day trips.

For any bookings between now and January 1st there will be a price reduction of £10 on 4 day trips and £20 on 6 day trips. For those people who have already booked, as soon as I get an extra booking that reduction applies to all bookings.

How good is that?

The list of holidays with available places is below. Just email me with the discount code CSD before 1st of January to make a booking and get this price reduction. Places are limited!!!

Private guiding is also possible but I am running out of free days fast.

SNOWSHOE TRIPS 2009

4 days: Meet 27 January; 17 March

6 days: Meet 31 January; 7 February; 28 March.

For more info go to www.trekkinginthealps.com

Right, time for me to get my snowshoes out and go and make some tracks!

Snow, snow and more snow!

Already by the end of September this year we had had our first fall of snow in the garden. Since then we enjoyed a beautiful warm October, but those early signs were correct and winter has arrived in full force, before November is through. This is what happened last year and we went on to have one of the best winters ever. Winter 08/9 looks set to be the same

After some very wind-blown snowfall at the weekend, last night saw half a metre of windless powder. We could hardly find our cars to dig them out this morning. And now it's snowing again.

Once this snowfall stabilises there will be some fabulous conditions for snowshoeing and skiing. The good thing is that there is already a firm base, which is what is sometimes lacking at this time of year.

I have lots of snowshoeing weeks and 4 day trips lined up, some of which still have places free. Now is the time to book whilst the flights are still reasonable.

Meanwhile if heli-skiing is your thing then it's good to know the heliski organisers' prices are more or less held from last year. Every year there are rumours that this wonderful activity will be banned, and once again the whispers are circulating. Best get those dream descents in before the kill-joys get their way!

Even in these difficult times, when the euro is too strong, and none of us know quite what the future holds, at least if you want a winter holiday you can be sure of good conditions.

Winter is coming so let's think about the summer!

October has been fantastic in the Alps - much better than September which was cold. But apparently it's all about to come to an end, with snow forecast at 600m or even lower. Everyone is out in their gardens digging up the last of the veggies and restocking the wood piles ready for the cold evenings. Putting the hour back only adds to the impression that winter will soon be here.

Obviously this is good for snowshoeing and there are lots of places left for this winter's trips.

But it's also not too early to think about the summer. The programme for Trekking in the Alps summer trips is available on http://www.trekkinginthealps.com/Summer_Calendar_2009.pdf so why not take a lot and start thinking about those long balmy days in the mountains.

Meanwhile, I had better get out and prepare for the white stuff. There is already a good covering in the high mountains and now it looks like the middle mountains will get their first fall. At this time of year any snowfall above 2500m is unlikely to melt even if warm weather returns. So a good start to the winter seems likely. Prepare the snowshoes and skis!

September is more like a really good October!

It was sunny for most of the last month, but it felt more like late October than September. With 0°C flirting with the 2000m mark, conditions have been cold and crisp and extremely beautiful.
The high sumits have a considerable layer of snow, with 80cms reported above 4000m. There are even photos of people ski touirng in fresh powder over in Austria!
The non-glaciated summits are just perfect right now, despite a powdering of snow in places.
The Arpelistock provided me with a good ascent last week and the views were superb.
Over on the other side of the Col de Sanetsch, the Cabane de Prarochet was also worth a visit, if only for the fantastic limestone pavement littered with deep blue pools - they looked great for a dip but I not that brave.
From tomorrow there is light snow forecast as low as 1200m but hopefully this will not signal the end if the high hiking and climbing - surely it will warm up again for some more good activites in October......

Corsica provides great end of season trekking

When you mention Corsica to walkers they always think of the famous GR20 long distance trek that takes the rocky spine of the island. However, there is a whole lot more to Corsican hiking than that, and in fact my latest visit in mid September confirmed my own feelings that the GR20 is not really the place to be right now.
With a small and very fit group I had 6 excellent days of hiking. It was unseasonally hot - more like August temperatures than September, and unusually for Corsica it was also quite humid. But the upside of this was that we could hike at any altitude without being cold, and the swimming opportunities were a delight.
It hadn't rained for the whole summer though, and the rivers were amazingly low. The water supplies at the huts were also worryingly low and this led to problems on the GR20 - reports of illness were becoming more and more common, especially towards the middle of the trek.
It seems to me that anyone going on the GR should aim to filter or treat water supplies, especially later in the season.
I no longer offer the GR for several reasons, one of which is the number of people on this route. From what I saw it was pretty crowded this September, although the hut guardians told me it had been quiet all summer until then.
Friends doing the route whilst I was over there told me many people gave up at the midway point, having become ill and also having found it very tough going. I am told the huts were low on food supplies - probably because there were too many people there in September.
So I am very happy that we were not doing the GR. we touched on it a couple of times, and my group told me they were relieved not to be spending the week following the red and white waymarks with everyone else.
There is so much more to Corsica than that. We did several summits, none of them big names, but all giving great views and none crowded - in fact most days we saw no-one else on the trails!
We also spent a night at a gite on the beach, and took in a very remote hut far from any crowds at all.
Corsica is a brilliant place - if you go there take the time to discover all aspects of the island, and to get to know the people and the culture.