Nick,
We were 4 bikes in total, each with a GPS track of the LGKS loaded and oddly, we had 3 different gpx tracks of the LGKS! The guy I was travelling with and I had the same trail (by coincidence), the other two guys, who we were due to meet at the start, each had different variations! Amongs ourselves, we couldn't determine the North and South differentiation and from what we could make out, we believe we rode the full trail at about 80klm long finishing at the Fort above Tende.
The bikes in the group included an XT600E (running TKCs) and a V-Strom (Heidi's & 3cm lowered!), both of which were running without luggage as they were camping in Tende, a R1200GS fully loaded (including an alloy box converted to a fridge and worn out TKCs) and myself on the XTR with soft bags all round carrying the same gear that I had been carrying for 4 months (ie laptop) and best worn Michelin T63's.
We crossed the snow, it was about 30m wide. A bit of manhandling to get the 1200 across and a lot of manhandling to get the Strom across. No issue for the XT and a bit of help required for me as I was last across and the trench was quite deep by then. You would have got across easier than us as in the direction that you were heading the snow was on a slight downhill for you.
Bloody scary though as it was on a savage side slope and the penalty for failure was huge!
We met a guy in Dolceaqua (south of LGKS) who had ridden his loaded 990 Adv across the snow solo, in the opposite direction to us, and he was sure we would get across. The trail was fairly easy with the exception of the snow and a 5klm section between the Fort and the refuge which was quite rough and or very slippery.
All in all, a great experience!
Sounds like we missed each other by about 8 hours. I think we arrived 7ish on Monday evening.
Unfortunately, I didn't ride any of the other (offroad) trails around Bardo as my mate was more keen to do the LGKS [again, for him] than the local trails. Sounds like next time for me
Cheers,
Dale