Today, two different songs came to mind, both for very different reasons. As I ascended the chairlift up from the Plan Joran restaurant just after 9 AM, I gazed up at the top station (sorry, “Le Top”!) and the sound of Chaka Khan singing “gotta be there, gotta be there… in the morning…” floated into my still slightly sleepy consciousness. (I know Mr Jackson did the original, but Chaka’s version, produced by maestro Arif Mardin is sublime!).

20 minutes later I WAS there. On my descent, I tried to go with the flow of the mountain, nothing too aggressive or fast. Truth be told after 6 days of all day skiing on GM (not the easiest of terrains) I was feeling a bit pooped and felt like floating down the mountain, enjoying the ambience and amazing views, rather than blasting. The very high hazy cloud added a slightly ‘soft’ feel too and I took several stops to admire my surroundings. As I stood at the top of the main ‘wall’ of the Point de Vue piste, I saw a guide leading his sole client down the slope just to the right of the markers, yelling “woo –hoo” on every one of his wide sweeping turns. A lovely moment – it really sounded like he was enjoying the early morning light as well. Moments later I “woo – hooed” my way down too!

The snow up here hasn’t changed significantly all week – solid, grippy and over-hard in just a few isolated spots. There are also a few sections of that weird wind blown stuff which looks gnarly but I find I just sail straight through it.

Below the Herse chair, for the first time all week, the snow was feeling a bit crusty this morning, no doubt due the higher temperatures yesterday that would have melted the upper layer. Nothing particularly nasty – quite nice in fact – but could get less agreeable if the warmth continues.

So a few descents in the bag, what to do next? On the cat track from Le Herse back to Lognan, I encountered a skier looking ever so slightly perplexed about a sign at the side of the piste. I explained that people often hoon down there (Aussie term for fast/ reckless – you know the type!) and there might be better paces to stand. We struck up conversation and to cut a long story short, I invited her to come and visit some old friends that afternoon…..

These were not retired mountain guides or clapped out ski bums with creaking knees, but the linked resorts of Brevent and Flegere that I’ve been meaning to get to all week but somehow haven’t been able to drag myself away from GM. Sian, (the skier’s name) had climbed here in the summer but had never visited in winter. She runs a small travel company and was checking out the valley for ‘professional research’ purposes. I wish I could claim that on MY tax return!!

Up the top of the Floria drag, the snow was really nice – solid, firm, grippy etc with no glazed sections. About half way down, as we encountered large moguls of…. LEMON SORBET for want of a better comparison, the second song of the day came to mind – Daniel Bedingfield’s “Gotta get thru this”! Some mates of mine actually really like to ski in this stuff, personally I preferred the views to the conditions! Possibly earlier in the day conditions may have been better (but would the top have been bullet hard?) but for the present at least, spring has really arrived in Brevent –Flegere!

Great skiing and some very nice company – what more could a snow reporter want?!