One Meter of Fresh Powder

Our arrival to the highest pass, Col de Chaviere, in the Vanoise
yesterday coincided with an unusual summer snow storm. Fortunately, we awoke to a blue sky morning with a 6000' snow level blanketing the surrounding mountains. Ascending higher and higher past rock cairns toward the col felt more like Nepal than France. After some postholing through snowfields, we negotiated the final approach to the steep pass with relative safety thanks to careful footing across shifting rock scree hidden beneath the fresh snow. ("Focus on your footwork" is mantra.) Beyond the excitement, the snow dressed up panoramic views making this pass crossing one of the most memorable.

More about the cheese... On the way to the pass, the attractive solid tan cows producing the milk for the Beaufortain cheese graze. They move from the valley bottom to as high as 8000' to find the best grass. France has fought within the EU to retain its own method of cheese-making which is not subject to the standard process of pasteurization. Rather, untreated whole milk is put into production as it has been for centuries. After the moulding process, the cheese spends a minimum of 5 months maturing in cool cellars. The inability to export the unpasteurized cheese is putting massive pressure on the traditional cheesemakers, one negative to globalization.
To avoid staying in the industrial valley town of Modane tonight, we are staying not at a refuge but in a ski condo in Valfrejus, halfway up the mountain. Earlier this morning we'd quickly dropped 2000' only to proceed steeply up another trail to a similar altitude this afternoon. This leaves us a reasonable 3000' climb tomorrow to the next pass on our way south toward Briancon.