A Day Away.

It's day off and a chance to do something a bit different. Not being able to look after Annabelle and both ski together we decided to go and explore a little further away in the valley on snow shoes. This would also give us a chance to try out Monty with his new backpack ( A Ruffwear palisades pack) ready for the summer camping trips.

So we loaded up the car and set of up to Val d'Isere and Le Joseray. At the car park we had to make sense of all that we had brought with us and get organised. So Annabelle dressed in her snow suit. Baby backpack loaded with lunch. Monty in his backpack and water sorted. Snowshoes adjusted. Great.

The 1st part of the walk is very straight forward along a piste bashed track to a small group of old derelict farm buildings at Le Manchet. This was a great point to stop for a cup of tea. We watch as groups of skier came past having enjoyed some great off piste skiing.

It was here that we had to put our snow shoes on as we headed of into a much more remote and wild feeling valley. It is one of the great and popular itinerary runs from the Val d'Isere ski lifts and a popular ski touring route to the refugee Fond de Four. The walking was now a bit harder as we gained height for a while before leveling out again. After another half hour we made our objective. A small little hut in the middle of no where that was doing a great trade in snacks an drinks. Here we enjoyed a cool drink and the warm sun for a while before retracing our tracks back to the car.

All in all a fun way to spend the day as a family. It's nice to try something different to skiing once in a while. Annabelle was great. She walked a bit and never complained about being in her back pack. Monty also got on well with his pack ( I will try and review it later on but first impressions are fantastic.) so I am hopeful we will be able to get away wild camping a bit this summer. It is just a question of wether I can carry everything now.