Night out in a snowhole - December 2021

In the week before Christmas I fancied a night out, so I put a sleeping bag, thermarest and stove in my rucksack, grabbed my touring skis and headed over the border to Switzerland. Parking up at the Col de la Forclaz at 8pm I pulled on the ski boots, clipped into the ski bindings and headed off up through the woods.

The night was clear and I made decent progress to pop out of the forest and onto the ridge of the Point Ronde.

It was nearly 10.30 by the time I reached the summit and there was a chilly breeze on top, so after a couple of quick photos I whipped the skins off my skis and descended until I found a nice wind-lip which I thought would make a good spot for digging a snow hole.

After lighting the stove to make a cup of tea I started digging into the snow, and proceeded to enlarge the hole while my baked beans were warming up.

Finally I completed my (not so) cosy home for the night before realising that I had forgotten to bring a tin opener (luckily the baked beans were ring-pull) and therefore couldn't get into my Ambrosia Creamed Rice pudding. A few minutes of head scratching later and I attacked it with one of the tines of my titanium spork. Surprisingly it turned out that the fork was sharp and tough enough to puncture the tin lid, and a few minutes later I had the can half-open and was able to empty the contents into the saucepan.

Having enjoyed this feast I wriggled into my sleeping bag and settled down for the night. It's not easy to sleep when you're really cold, but I think I managed to snatch a few minutes here and there. At 3am I was woken by the sound of foot steps which were being transmitted through the snow. I knew there wouldn't be any people wondering round the mountain at this time, so I assumed it must be a wild animal. In the morning I spotted what looked like fox paw prints going up the ridge close to my snow hole.

At 7am there was a vauge hint of dawn in the eastern sky, so I made a cup of tea and packed my kit away.

Then it was a delightful descent through some pretty nice powder - these north facing slopes hold it well even several days after the last snowfall. This brought me back to the col and the car, before a drive home to pick up the kids and then creche drop-off for my son and breakfast in the boulangerie in Argentiere with my daugher.