Having a few hours free but not being entirely free of the bronchitis that’s been troubling us today seemed a good chance to try one of the Movement-sponsored touring tracks over at Les Diablerets. I think they’ve been in for a couple of seasons now but the couple on the Isenau side take on a new life now that the lift isn’t running. I thought the Buvette at the top would be open and as we set off on the ascent track I got a text from the tourist office telling me that it was.
The tracks aren’t really anything new, these are tracks that people have been using for a while and they coincide in part with some snowshoe trails. I would say the red-route from the village needs some better signs though. Sticking a sign saying “start” 150m above the village and not in the car park is a curious choice really. Had I not looked at the trail map before leaving the house and recognised the route then we’d have just gone up the old piste like most other people did.
The actual route is nice and I know it well, it takes a line up through the forest before crossing some open slopes to the old lift station. On a warming day like today the snow was a little damp and stuck quite badly to our skins which obviously need proofing.
Today was the first time I’ve used the second of my two new avalanche sacks. It’s a removable system so I have an Ortovox Free Rider 22L Avabag and the new one, an Ortovox Ascent 30L. The Ascent is a great ski-tour sack, it’s about the lightest at that size which is why I went with the Ortovox system. For example, the Ascent 30L is 260g lighter than the Mammut Light 30L and 870g lighter than the Mammut Ride 30L. Those differences don’t mean a lot for lift-served off-piste but they start to add up for ski touring.
There’s no doubt the Ascent is better suited to ski-touring than the Free Rider, it’s better balanced and more comfortable for ascent and perfectly comfortable and balanced for the descent. I’ll see how it performs for spring ski touring and if the 30L capacity is big enough for me. There is a 40L version announced at ISPO 2018 in Munich which might be more useful if I wanted to use it for multi-day tours or work.
