With the continuing very cold and snowy conditions (sub zero for at least a week) and Susie's Wednesday afternoon dance classes, it was a chance to drop her off at Oust, do a quick tour, then pick her up on the way back. Andy was up for it, so off we went to Tuc de la Coume. The approach piste from Cominac was very snowy but the Vitara in 4 wheel drive with snow tyres made it to the the parking just short of the Col de la Vieille Mort.
We climbed through the forest and emerged into the usual glorious view.
The summit looked clear, a few ancient ski tracks and a recent snowshoe ascent. The snow was good low down and a bit hardened by the driving winds higher up, with accumulations on the leeward side of the ridge. As we climbed the freezing clouds began to climb with us. About 50m from the summit I realised we would soon be engulfed and signalled to Andy it was time to descend.
Too late. the cloud engulfed us and our descent was destroyed. The visibility was about 10m at most and we descended cautiously a few turns at a time so that we didn't loose each other. Miraculously we found the exit of the path of ascent from the forest. The usual descent via fields and barns in this visibility seemed far too risky to find, so we opted to descend by out path of ascent.
The snow was rapidly forming a frozen crust and the descent was scrappy and unpleasant until we reached the good piste that returned to the car. We'd made good progress despite the conditions and were only 10 mins late to pick Susie up. A tad over 2 hours for the round trip.
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