Lovely as the snow is at the moment in Val Thorens, with almost waist deep powder and blue skies, hardly any people and most of the lifts operating. I found myself searching for something else. I decided to go for a little ski touring, get away from it all and find some completely untouched snow.

With only Val Thorens open the rest of the 3 Valleys is untouched snow, so I decided to visit les Menuires and St Martin de Belleville's pistes before anyone else. I headed up to Col de Chambre from Val T on my touring skis. From the top I could see down Cote Brune towards Mottaret and the Saulire.

I skied down over perfect pistes and virgin powder to above Bettex, which lies between St Martin and Les Menuires where I had to climb again for a while. I could then ski all the way down to St. Martin.

All along the way I was completely alone, just sleeping lifts waiting to spring into action when the time comes. Here and there were tracks of alpine hare and fox and of piste basher and snowmobile disturbing the perfect snow.

The snow varied from almost waist deep to a dusting on a shallow base. But with snow from top to bottom this early on we are looking forward to a great season.

Words and Pictures from Tom Greenall - Natives Resort Reporter

More First Impressions...

of Val Thorens
of Early Snow in the Alps
of Mt Cheeseman
of Mt Hutt
of Porter Heights

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