Proper snow and blizzards too

Overnight and this morning we had a proper dump of snow, the first (and probably last) of the winter. There was nothing for it, we had to christen the snowshoes. It was still blowing a blizzard when we left the house, but all the same, we headed up to the Col de Caougnous where we met the road up to the Col de Port. Although the road had been cleared earlier, it was still looking decidedly wintery.

We then headed up the road to Peguere which had not been cleared. The powder would have been just perfect for skinning up on the skis, but we were going to give it a bash with the snowshoes. There was only around 6" of snow on the lower section but after a kilometer or so it startened to deepen quite noticeably. Breaking trail was hard work in the soft powder... it was a good work out. The weather higher up was quite unpleasant, with wind driving the snow into our faces and the temperatures much lower. We didn't want to hang about in those conditions. The descent back down the hill following the tracks that we had made on the ascent was fast and good fun.
Hot chocolate in front of the fire when we got back home :-)