The Col d’Arsine is a beautiful hiking destination at any time of the year I have written a few posts about ski touring around the Col du Lauteret. There is also some great walking in the same area. In fact, many of the ski tours make good walks and vice versa. The Col d’Arsine is…
Here in the French Alps, we are enjoying a seemingly endless summer. It is almost November and the sunny, cloudless days show no sign of coming to an end. What does this mean for the winter ahead? Update: It is snowing all over the Alps now. But the point below still stands: the weather in…
This archive post is about the 2018 Off-Piste course. Watch out for details of the 2020 course to be posted very soon, or send us an email to bookings@whitemarmotte.com to make an enquiry. After the success of our previous off-piste courses, we will be back with the second edition of the European Ski School Off-Piste…
These large, ground-dwelling squirrels are a symbol of the Alps and other mountain ranges. They are easy to recognise from their cute, cuddly appearance, but how much do you know about everybody’s favourite mountain rodent? There are fourteen different living species of marmot Four extinct species have also been identified in the fossil record….
We all know that France and Switzerland are famous for their cheese, from Camembert to Gruyere, and cheese dishes like Fondue or Raclette. Cheese forms a big part of the local culture in the Alpine regions. Consequently, countless stories surround the production and even the names of the cheeses. As a lover of local cheese,…
In March 2017, we ran our first European Ski School Off-Piste course in conjunction with TipTop Ski Coaching. I had already taught plenty of off-piste lessons, including off-piste courses for the Ski Club of Great Britain in Deux Alpes, but it was nice to be launching a new product for the ski school. This time…
Many ski resorts have felt the effects of recent poor winters. Investment in snowmaking is seen as a way to ensure good skiing conditions no matter what the weather does. Here is no exception. The biggest investment over the summer has been new snowmaking in Les Deux Alpes. Whether the recent trend of drier winters…
This post is based on a talk I prepared for my recent International Mountain Leader summer assessment in Samöens. Candidates have to deliver two ten minute talks on topics related to the Alpine environment. I chose to use village architecture as a framework to talk about the geology of the region near Les Deux Alpes….
This is another nice ski tour in the Mont Thabor range. We did it on the last day of the TipTop trip to the Drayères Refuge in April. This is slightly shorter than the previous route (Rocher de la Grande Tempête) and more southerly in aspect, so it makes a good morning tour on a…
The Refuge des Drayeres in the Mont Thabor range is a superb base for a few days ski touring, with plenty of routes suiting beginners to experts. The Rocher de la Grande Tempête is the first tour I did from the Refuge on a visit in April with TipTop Ski Coaching. The route is a…
