A quickly hatched plan to make the most of the meagre snow cover. Head for the Val d'Aran (Spain) and snatch Pic de Port Viehla, a peak I'd skied in 2004 with Paul Hadfield. It's a couple of hours or more in the car, so Paula and Andy decided to travel the day before, stay in a hotel and get up at a reasonable time. When they got there I got a worried call about the lack of snow!
I decided it would probably be OK so joined them early the following morning. -5 degrees in the valley and we set off through the forest on an icy hard frozen (but snowy) track.
Eventually we left the forest behind and made it onto the mountainside. the snow was variable - sometimes powdery, often hard and sometimes with a breakable crust. I hoped it would improve. When Paul and I did the peak we climbed on the other side of the river too early and ended up on some sketchy terrain. This time we attempted to follow the classic route but still missed the lake. As the snow cover was very poor on the side of the valley leading to our objective we looked for another.
To our left was the rock pyramid of Tuc des Hemmes and on it's right was a steep snow slope that looked inviting! Constantly in shade we hoped the snow would be still powdery.
Tuc des Hemmes - the obvious rock pyramid
Our new objective the ramp leading up to the col on the right of the Tuc
Looking back to the Port de Viehla and the Peak which takes it's name on the right
Lunch spot
After lunch Paula and I skinned up the slope which was steeper than it first looked - but the snow had stayed fluffy and the ski down was magnificent!
The descent was a very mixed bag, nice from our lunch spot but getting progressively worse as we descended. Old tracks were frozen hard, snow in the sun had breakable crust but pockets of powder could be found. Lower down the snow was just too thin.....rocks and bushes to try and avoid.
A day of mixed snow, but worth the effort.
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