The past month has been really busy with ski touring groups, ranging from the Haute Route to Gran Paradiso, and Silvretta to Monte Rosa, as well as the ever popular Intro Ski Touring weekends. The photo shows one of the groups ascending to one of the high cols on the Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt. Next week sees our last week long ski tour of the winter season setting off to Monte Rosa, and there are a few ski ascents of Mont Blanc scheduled for May. The conditions for skiing Mont Blanc are good at the moment, but the last few days have seen very high winds at the summit. In Chamonix a lot of the cable cars and ski areas close this weekend, but during the inter-season there are always a couple of lifts open each day, usually the Aiguille du Midi cable car and Montenvers railway. With the closure of the lifts, the town becomes quieter until early June when everything reopens again, and the summer season starts. Soon it is time to hang up the skis for the year, and to get the ice axe and crampons out!