My year in France

**rod9301** · 11-11-2019, 12:13 PM

In August, packed 250 lbs of gear, with my wife and two kids and moved to the French Pyrénées, luz Saint sauveur exactly.

Mountain biked a lot. Which is long periods of meh trails, interspersed with steep switchbacks with crazy exposure.

Spent two weeks in October in Romania, with the obligatory visit to the Bran castle.

Sibiu Was beautiful.

Anyway, last week it started to snow, and now we have 150 cm base and snow forecasted for the next 10 days.

My first ski day today.

Visibility sucked, but at least i got two hours of uphill.

Lots of couloirs that I'm going to start skiing soon.

Sent from my Armor_3 using Tapatalk

**Danno** · 11-11-2019, 12:17 PM

Super cool! How old are your kids? Where did you come from and how did you manage this year sabbatical?

**rod9301** · 11-11-2019, 01:00 PM

They are 7 and 10. I live in squaw.

We want then to learn French and get the benefits of a French and US education.

Sent from my Armor_3 using Tapatalk

**garyfromterrace** · 11-11-2019, 01:47 PM

Tres bon! Sounds like great adventure for your whole fam. Nicely done!

**406** · 11-12-2019, 11:14 AM

Cool, are the better mtb trails on the Spain side or just not in your area? People seem to claim there are good ones in those mountains.

Would love to do a sabbatical with the family, I want kids to learn German, but wife wants Spanish, so Spain or south america might be my options.

Interested to see what you find for skiing.

**rod9301** · 11-12-2019, 11:48 AM

Mtb trails are good, it's just that most were originally for walking, so the switchbacks are really tight.

If you like hiking, the ski resort near me, bareges la mongie is the best I've ever been to.
Counted 80+ couloirs in the ressort, most with a 10-60 minute approach, steep.

And nobody skis them.

Sent from my Armor_3 using Tapatalk

**rod9301** · 11-14-2019, 08:23 AM

Keeps on snowing in the Pyrénées.
Went today for a skin, skied familiar terrain in low visibility.

We have well over a meter of snow, so I'm going to start exploring couloirs soon.

Worried about stability, so tomorrow time to do some snow pits.

Pretty stoked to be skiing so early.

Sent from my Armor_3 using Tapatalk

**Goniff** · 11-14-2019, 11:54 AM

Subscribed. Keep the pics coming!

**rod9301** · 11-14-2019, 02:41 PM

Romania, London, Pyrenees

Sent from my Armor_3 using Tapatalk

**Buster Highmen** · 11-14-2019, 03:44 PM

+++

**rod9301** · 11-16-2019, 07:30 AM

Skied a couloir on bedera in powder!

Dug a pit, 120 cm to ground, pretty stable.

By the time i got to the top, it started to snow. Visibility was good in the couloir, but when i got past the apron i entered the white room.

2,500 vertical feet of disorienting, no idea where i was, skiing.

I can see how people get lost.

I knew to area, and i still had a hard time orienting myself.

Sent from my Armor_3 using Tapatalk

**Buster Highmen** · 11-16-2019, 08:56 AM

La Mongie ?

**rod9301** · 11-16-2019, 09:06 AM

Originally Posted by Buster Highmen

La Mongie ?

Yes

Sent from my Armor_3 using Tapatalk

**rod9301** · 11-16-2019, 09:07 AM

This morning at 7-30

Sent from my Armor_3 using Tapatalk

**Buster Highmen** · 11-16-2019, 09:34 AM

Have you skied off the observatory? That looks so rad.

**rod9301** · 11-16-2019, 12:36 PM

Originally Posted by Buster Highmen

Have you skied off the observatory? That looks so rad.

Not yet. But there are a number of couloirs on pic du midi, ne, n and nw facing and they are on my list this year.

Sent from my Armor_3 using Tapatalk

**rod9301** · 11-18-2019, 08:49 AM

On the list, couloir in the middle, barely visible.

Sent from my Armor_3 using Tapatalk

**rod9301** · 11-21-2019, 07:25 AM

Second fail on the Ourdegon couloir.

Started early, good cold powder everywhere.

Then after 3 hours, i see the couloir, and it's full of avalanche débris.

But, like i learned from Jimmy Chin, "we go until it makes no sense to go any farther"

So, skinning thru breakable crust, then booting up thru frozen debris, until i could see that i would have to ski almost the entire couloir in frozen chunky snow.

So it didn't make sense to go any farther.

This couloir is cursed. In the spring there is a runnel that makes very difficult to ski.

Powder would be ideal, but it has to be followed by a cold, cloudy day, so the rock walls do not shed the snow in the couloir... Like it did yesterday.

In the second photo you can see a nasty slide, all the way to the grassy ground.

I would really really like to ski this couloir before my 71 st birthday.

We'll see.

Burly day though, almost 8 hours car to car

Sent from my Armor_3 using Tapatalk

**Buster Highmen** · 11-21-2019, 09:21 AM

props d00d, looks sweet.
baste your domage in le fromage.

**anemic** · 11-22-2019, 08:20 AM

This is fantastic! Thanks for sharing

**thefortrees** · 11-22-2019, 12:48 PM

Excellent dude! I'm looking forward to seeing updates as the season progresses.

**gretch6364** · 11-22-2019, 04:26 PM

+++

**rod9301** · 11-26-2019, 05:50 AM

Skied this couloir this morning. In the sun, great snow. As soon as the shade hit, frozen chunks, not do good.

I know that a photo taken from the bottom doesn't go out justice, but still... This is a 45 degree couloir, and it looks like a blue run from the bottom.

And what a difference a day makes, from whiteout to sun.

Sent from my Armor_3 using Tapatalk

**rod9301** · 11-26-2019, 05:52 AM

This ridge is one of my favorites. Before the resort opens, it's a 4,000 climb.
After this weekend, a 1,000!
Crete de la Touatere.
It's the screen saver on my laptop.

Sent from my Armor_3 using Tapatalk