We returned to Serre Chevalier valley for the weekend (April 20-22) to enjoy a bit more winter weather and strengthen our newly (re)acquired skiing skills — it feels like every time we are on our skis we need to learn skiing anew, but luckily after each time it takes less and less time to get comfortable and master the technique.  The skiing tracks had been maintained until our arrival, but after a couple of very warm days, they officially closed the Nordic skiing area and stopped grooming the tracks. Apparently, this gave the pedestrians a strong signal that it is now perfectly ok to go walking on the tracks, even if there were people still skiing!

It was very green in Grenoble before the weekend, but the landscape got increasingly gray/brown, and then white as we drove South and climbed in altitude.

We started early the next morning (+5C), but the skiing conditions deteriorated quickly, so we left after a couple of hours. In the afternoon we went hiking to the sunny slopes.

We made the last desperate attempt of skiing very early next morning, hoping that the tracks would be better after the near freezing temperatures during the night. Nope, they were much worse than the day before. As if balancing wasn’t hard enough, in these conditions it was extra difficult.

We felt a bit sad when leaving Serre Chevalier as if the season was cut short, when in fact it was much better than last year. We stopped at La Grave for a short hike up to the nearby villages.

These flower paintings on the trail GR 50/54 guided us to the small village of Les Terasses.