So this is 3 people, B.  What is happening in this photo exactly?  Looks like you are trekking to a special off-piste run...

RA

Ron Andruff 4698 days ago

Actually this was three days of 'ski de randonnée' and I put it in French because I am not sure what that is called in English. I don't think it is cross-country skiing is it? which might be 'ski de fond'? It's not downhill skiing where you have plenty of people on the slopes; this is the opposite : you are alone in that beautiful immensity. This picture is not very good : there was a wonderfull bright blue sky and nothing but mountains and snow which is very rewarding, awesome, you feel one with this great nature. You have peau de phoque underneath your skis, which I believe are seal skins in English, so you can walk up the hills zigzagging since there are no ski lifts around at all. We were very fortunate here though that, after quite a while!, we were not alone anymore and Christophe came along with his friend and was carrying a very big mountaineering rope, because for nothing in the world, no money whatsoever I would have skied down that 200 meter high wall we came across, which Jean-Marc wanted me to do. Afterwards, I was told some very rare champions skied down this wall, but I saw no-one doing it. So with the skis on my feet and being attached at the middle Christophe let me down, me having my sticks to keep straight. The pics are not in the right order; the first one is the last one : where I was so happy to have survived this and the adrenaline trip. Really fabulous though this kind of skiing, is it back-country skiing or ski touring? You experience solitude, alone together in that great immensity. I wish I had done this more often, but you cannot do this with just about anyone, because you have to know where you are going, being able to read the cards properly, have an idea of where avalanches might come. We actually were in a small avalanche, but Jean-Marc said I had to keep calm and constantly jump above the snow, which I did : we were lucky though that this was only a small one! This was only three days, sleeping in mountain refuges and speeking German, Spanish, English, Dutch, French : I loved the atmosphere!

Beatrice De Vis 4696 days ago

So Ron any idea of what this kind of skiing is called in America?

Beatrice De Vis 4671 days ago

I think you've got it right, Beatrice, it is not cross-country skiing...  I know it as using seal skins to climb the mountain to be able to ski 'off piste'.  So that is what I think it translates to... I personally have never done it, but have seen it done and am amazed at both the effort needed to get up the mountain and how such a simple piece of material on the bottom of your skis could be so effective!

Ron Andruff 4671 days ago

I suppose you mean it is cross-country skiing Ron; it's a typo to say it is not cross-country? or what would it be called otherwise? Unfortunately I only did it once and know no-one else apart from Jean-Marc who knows how to do it, knows the areas where to ski this way. But when I see how many accidents there have been in the Alpes these last years, I wonder if I would dare to go again. You are right : it takes a lot of effort to get up the mountain. I remember I was so tired at night that I felt like drugged, but so happy, I suppose the body makes a kind of biodrug that does this to you : great feeling. And you sleep so well afterwards, to get going again the next day in that wonderful white landscape with no traces in it and the bright blue sky above.

Beatrice De Vis 4671 days ago