It had stopped snowing, and the pistey bashers had done a great job. The top surface was superb, although vis was not so good: cloudy and flat light, so we would need to feel our way more today. Still some deep snow about off piste, and outside the chalet in particular:
The Scare Chair is interesting. Not scary, but not what you expected either. It just drops down the valley and you go down, but its all quite sedate and there are some spectacular views when the light is ok. This was taken on the way back over later in the day:
We did the steep Fontfroide red a couple of times, not too easy in the flat light, but hit some serious speed in the bottom section. It was nice to ski all week with so few other people on the slopes, and not once did we queue for a lift. This is how I like it, and exactly why I go in January. We ended up over in Auris, where we had the most fantastic hot chocolate in a small piste side cafe. Even if it was £4. Some of the pistes had not been bashed, and we found ourselves having a right laugh in some seriously deep stuff all over again. Alison thought she was going to die coming down one of them, but then skied past me at the bottom whooping with delight. I think she is getting on with her new K2's.
We stopped for lunch over at the bottom of the DMC; there is a really decent restaurant in the Hotel Beau Soleil operated by Rocketski. Cheap food, massive portions, and FREE water. Refuelled, we headed up the DMC and over to Oz en Oisans down the wonderful Poutran and L'Omlet runs. Phil was having binding problems and had to stop and tighten them at a service station by the Poutran lift - they had nearly come right off!Discovered the chalet is haunted tonight. Over dinner, me and Wilko definitely heard a woman calling out from downstairs...but on investigation there was no one there, and the front door remained locked. Odd. Then the Ipod turned itself on in the speaker dock. Even odder. But at 3.15am I woke up hearing a buzzing noise, lay in bed for a minute and then went downstairs. We had been in the hot tub the night before, and always left covered up, switched off, lights out. However, when I followed the noise, I ended up downstairs in the hot tub room - lid off, jets working, lights on. Very weird.
Friday was my turn to pick us a route; Gary, Tim and Paul joined up again, having thoroughly enjoyed the previous day. Looking out the window over breakfast, I just knew this was going to be special. Very special. The sun was poking through the thin later of cloud, the pistes had been bashed overnight, but there had been about 10cm of fresh snow on top, not a breath of wind. The kind of day you dream of, and don't very often get.
We went straight up the 2nd stage of the DMC and had the most sensational morning over in Montfrais, heading down Les Rousses and past L'Alpette, before messing about on the blues down in the valley. The sun was bursting through now, the cloud virtually gone, apart from a thick blanket down in the valley beneath us. The off piste was soft and fluffy, the bashed pistes almost deserted and in just the best conditions you can imagine. Tim had a nasty fall just before lunch and twisted his knee, and decided not to ski that afternoon so headed off with his Dad after a great lunch in La Grange near the Alpette cable car. Tim and his Dad had Duck Malgrat and said it was amazing, whilst Ali and me shared the most amazing Pizza. 
Phil and Wilko decided to have an afternoon with their non skiing GF's and left us, so myself, Alison and Paul decided to have a bit more fun in the offpiste around Alpette before taking the cable car up to 3300m and the highest point on Pic Blanc. The view up here is amazing, you can see one fifth of France. But it needs to be a clear day. We decided it was the time to do La Sarenne, the longest black in Europe. Not at all an easy run, and so much off piste to play in too, so it was absolutely knackering. We ended up under the low cloud at the mid station of the scare chair and headed back up to ADH for a beer in the sun, before I skied together with Stewart for his last run of the week. The whole day was so good, and ranks amongst my best ever ski days yet. It was so good, I will let the photos do the talking: 
Luckily for me, I managed to blag a lift pass on the Saturday morning and had 4 hour extra hours to try and make up for some of the lost time. Me and Paul went back over to Montfrais where the best skiing was in my opinion, and had a giggle playing in the pow around Lac Blanc too, before we got too tired and had a couple of tumbles in the really deep stuff, up to our waists, coming back down under the DMC into town. It was time to put the Neo's away for a few weeks, and pack the last few things for the journey back, which turned out to be a lot less eventful than the one over!
ADH gets a massive thumbs up from me. Lots of variety, 250km to go at, and with the deep snow we had fall while we were there, tons of fun in the powder and off piste. La Sarenne is over rated IMO, its a long and tiring run, nothing too hard about it but it just goes on and on and on and on.....and the bottom couple of miles is all fairly flat and dull. We didn't do the Tunnel as we only went up Pic Blanc one day, and it had been closed the previous 2 days when we looked on the lift info board in town. Next trip, Serre Chevalier 6th March, assuming Monarch Airlines don't f*** up again or go bust in the meantime......
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