These photos are all courtesy of Emma Runciman.

In all it took Jacques (6 yrs) and I four hours. I suspect that if I was on my own  it would have taken 5 hrs, the main problem being the 5cm snow depth we started with. Jacques was a top snow collector.

We used a genius kit from Grand Shelters in the States. Without this we would have had no hope! They estimate that in ideal conditions it would take two adults 2hrs to finish an igloo. I believe them.

The various stages are visible here, the way the “Ice-Box” forms the bricks is clearly visible. More pictures can be found here.

For those interested in why this igloo is slightly taller and pointier than the traditional igloo, have a look at this link. And some information on the traditional igloo.

A little circuit that took in the Col de Coux above Morzine The temperature inversion was stuck at about 1800m which made for some atmospheric pictures.

This was a route researched by Steve Norris linking the Col de Coux to the Chalets d’Aiguille below the Pointe de Fornet.

A GPS download and stats for the trip available at mtbguru.com and  pictures on Flickr.

There was about 20cm of windblown snow above 2000m that had formed isolated slabs of up to 30cm and drifts up to 1m. Signs of recent spontaneous slab avalanches off the ridges.

October 30th 2008. 20cm down at 1000m and 40ish up at 1700m. I missed out on this in favour of a family trip back to the UK. Not bad for October!

It didn’t last long though!