Hauteluce, France

M-J and Dom decided to go for a walk today, so Chris, Katie, Steph and I headed over to Hauteluce and the back side of Les Contamines.

Over night we had some snow ... a light sprinkling lower down but promised to be 4-5 cms. higher up.

I wanted to have a look at the routes going from the col towards the E then S .. there are a number of routes described in the books, but I had never been in the right position to do any of them.

The best we could hope was to go up to the col and back via the lac de la Girottes, but I suspected we would not get that far.

Driving around to the the parking at Belleville, it was all quiet and in shadow. Even when we got there I could not imagine it was opened as there was parking right beside the ticket office .. we had to go and check it was open.

Then up on the cabine, and changed to a chair at half way.

On the way up there was man made snow all the way down in the shade, up at the top this looked slightly brown, but there.

At the top, the true state of the snow cover was revealed .. all the off-piste variants we had done here before we out of condition, even the drop off the summit!

Looking SE we could see the col (on the very right hand side) and an alternative in the middle.

There seemed to be snow once you could get to it. the skies were clear and the sun shining..  a good day.

Getting across to it would be more challenging ...  the normal route cut a traverse over the slopes to a track in the end of the valley... this was not on today as it was green. So we set off down the green track - luckily the new snow made this possible.
After a short lived attempt to cut the corner off we skied to where the rack met the one into our target. Lower than we would have liked, but it was trailed.

There were some bare patches low down on the track so we carried our skis for the first half a kilometer.

Then when it got into the shadow, and also started climbing we began skinning, cutting the corners off where the track zigzaged up the slope.

We were following existing trails from parties earlier in the day, however as we go to the summer buildings at 2000m it became clear that they were heading for the alternative col ... so we started our own route .. roughly following the centre of the valley.

There were numerous old tracks mainly descents, but these gave a solid base for us to use.

The next section was through the "pierrade" ...  lots of boulders and bushes under the snow, requiring a circuitous route around the dangers, and frequently pulling to the right.

Around here we picked up the trail of a large snowshoe party that made things a little easier, even if they were not exactly heading for the head of the valley.

Coming out of the boulder fields we moved into a larger moraine type slopes.

Here we left the snowshoe trail as it was heading to far west and cut out on our own. It was clear we would not make the col .. it was past noon.

However there was a rounded dome on the skyline that looked achievable and would give us a summit and a view point.

This summit was on the ridge, and gave us views all around. the col still more than a kilometer away and past lunch time we settled for it and lunch.

The two snowshoers behind were not happy to have to break trail - but they had been following us for a long way and taking it easy.

We could have dropped down towards the lake from here, but the risk of not picking the right trail was easily avoided.

Jumping off the top into gorgeous powder was a real bonus, and the section down to the morain was a delight to ski.

Around the morain needed more care, but the snow was holding up and caused no real problems.

However the boulder field was more problematical ...  here we found it best to stay very close the uphill trail other wise it as too simple to get stuck in a boulder or bush.

That was OK until the uphill trail turned sharply and I found myself heading straight down trying too negotiate boulders like moguls ... eventually I came to grief as the skis stuck on rock.

The last section to the buildigns we had passed onthe way up was even more hair-raising for me as I planted my face after both skis broke through onto bushes, stopping suddenly. just hurt my pride, but gave the others much to laugh at.

Next it was down the track until the snow ran out and a short walk back to the piste.

The piste had deteriorated during our time away and there were several sections of walking before we reached the man made snow on the main trails.

From here it was down the last tranche to the bottom and the car ... a mixture of slushy icy snow and hard packed snow/ ice where the trail went into the shade.

Next time it would be good to come down from the lake.

 Back at the bottom we rushed into the bar/ cafe for a cuppa and a plate of chips , only to be told the kitchens had just shut and there was no hot food .. not good news. the girls had been looking forward to them for days, it just did not work out this trip.

A fitting image to remember this trip.