The half-term holidays are here and it's not snowed heavily in the Chamonix valley for a little while now, but Haute Pursuit are proving that there is still powder to be skied, if you look for it and put some effort in to get to it. Andy Phillips of Haute Pursuit, along with Paddy Cunningham, hit the Pas de Chevre (accessed from the top lift of the Grand Montets) on Saturday 13th of February. After fighting down the Central Couloir over some horrible ice and moguls and round open crevasses, an hour's skinning up towards the base of Les Drus, revealed about 600m of fresh lines. Paddy's whoops of delight as he dropped in confirmed how good the snow was. Whilst we wait for the next dump and the half-term holidays makers enjoy the glorious sunshine, all at Haute Pursuit will be getting out their touring gear to go in search of more hidden powder!
The Cosmiques Couloir gives a total of 2800m of skiing with one lift and almost no hiking. It is certainly not extreme, but provides a much spicier and more interesting way off the Midi than the standard Valle Blanche. As of writing, there has been nowhere near enough snow to ski in directly, and around 90m of rapping is required before putting skis on. The entrance is just behind the Cosmiques hut and reasonable anchors can be found in situ, but take some tat. The couloir ranges from 45 to 35 degrees most of the way, and is never that exposed. Perfect for some practice on the steeps. Just don't hang around beneath the Tacul seracs, I've seen a few big ones go. To access to huge powderfields of the para slopes between the old and new lifts, hit the rightward traverse off the Bosson, but this area can be very slabby and is super exposed. The Ronde Glacier is another very accessible line, having tried to ski it recently, I can report it is in pretty awful nic, with unconsolidated snow being scraped off blue glacial ice with every turn. 
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