Looking at the map there seemed to be a likely route up the SE face of the Sommet du Prorel - the peak that overlooks the SW side of Briancon.
We set off in the car to drive around through Puy-St-Pierre to Puy-St-Andre, and then tried to get up the valley on the back road to Les Combes and the parking there.
Although the snow was melting and on the South facing side it should be more advanced there, but we had not reckoned with the forest retarding the melting. As we drove up the track passing through the last remaining patches of snow, However on one of the hairpins, there was a large drift that we just could not get past ... around 30cms deep the wheels just got stuck. In fact the only way to turn around on the narrow track was to reverse the back end of the car into the drift, and while spinning the front drive wheels push the car sideways on the snow to turn about its axis.
Pointing back down the road we drove back to Puy-St- Andre. From here we had noticed a ski piste going back up, like a white ribbon amongst the green pastures.We used this ribbon to quickly gain height, and were soon working up through the tree covered lower slopes.
The trees thinned out as we got higher, and we could see the end goal.
Up the ridge we could see the summit, although it did look as if we would be picking a winding route through the snow patches.
There was an anxious moment when crossing a bowl, and the snow compressing under the skis made a whoomping sound... was this about to break away? Luckily it remained stable.
Up past a couple of ski lift stations, closed for the end of the season, and winding up the final sloes to the summit.The descent was basically a reverse of the ascent, although it was easier to link the snow patches together from above, so we could pick out some straighter line.
We took extra special care as we crossed the bowl that had made the noise on the way upwards, skiing one at a time from safe point to safe point.
Back on the piste runs in the lower slopes the effect of the day's heat, and the lack of freezing at night with the cloud cover, the ribbon was visibly narrower than when we ascended in the morning.
This was no clearer than on the final section where we had to remove the skis at a couple of points.We had made a useful trip out of a mediocre day. A few days later when the sun was shining you could see the route clearly.