For the final day of our shake down trip and with a warm and wet forecast we headed up on to the Brevant ski area above Chamonix looking to put some mileage in. The total piste length is 57km and we reckoned it was possible in a short bad weather day. The morning went well with the skiing feeling easy after a few days off piste. However after a short break for some lunch we were heading back up the Index lift when we realized that the black run almost directly below and our target for this run had suffered a full depth avalanche down on to the easy pistes below. Ski Patrol were just arriving with a search dog closely followed by helicopter reinforcements. Luckily it looks like no one was caught out in this instance. We investigated the slopes above and found a totally saturated snowpack with water running down the slabs behind it. Ski penetration was above knee depth and the whole area was looking pretty scary so we beat a hasty retreat. With 46 km covered we headed back to the cable car spotting the evidence of a number of small slides around the resort. The only day of the trip where we chose not to wear transceivers as we were staying on piste was probably the day we were most at risk!
