Le Defi Foly and the mountains

As promised, here’s an entry about last week’s Defi Foly here in La Clusaz, where people chuck themselves into freeing cold water just for fun. Actually, this year, the temperature was a balmy 8°C—a big improvement after last year’s iceberg-ridden lake. The winner was, predictably, a mono-skier, although the Pope Mobile fancy dress entry was quite funny. What better way to describe the even than with this really good video from the day. We’re the group with the big white marquee on the hill, but you only see us twice. If you get bored at any point, feel free to fast forward to the fancy dress at the end, or check out the photo below the video.

So, I took this photo morning. Two people trekked to the top of La Balme and left two glorious tracks down the heavy blanket of fresh powder. To get to the mid-station alone takes around an hour, and that’s the easy part. They must have started before the sun had even risen. Since then, they’ve walked back up a few more times and left a series of tracks throughout the day. Fantastic effort by them. Click on the photo below for a close-up. Things to notice in this photo:

  • fresh tracks to the left;
  • mogul course now almost completely covered (bottom right, visible in enlarged photo);
  • fresh powder, blue sky, empty, halted chairlift (boo!)

One other thing that I’ve noticed during the day is that the two people have traversed left underneath the chair at the top of the peak. This is something that happens all season, as people attempt to get fresh tracks further away from the chairlift. But they’re the only two people up there! What are they thinking? Surely they could be spending their sliding time going down instead of across since they have such a huge expanse that is still mostly untracked. Or am I wrong? Is there a reason they’ve done this? Please tell me if I’m missing something here.

About

I'm a technical author, journalist and writer from Australia who has been living in Europe since 2000 and exploring the world from there. My passions are writing, snow sports and travel.