Les arcs, France

Today the clouds dropped down below the station and we woke up to zero visibility.

After an extra hour hanging around we decided to skin up the piste a little bit.. we would aim for the col du grand Reynard.

We headed up the red route below the teleski du Vallandry, before cutting over to the col using the blue run and then the red to the col.

We paused on the col going under the ropes and walking up the ridge a little way. We paused for lunch, and then returned the way we came up

 There was some powder away from the piste a little, that had fallen over night.

The light was very flat and it made for some interesting turns.

As we got lower and down in between the trees , the visibility became better and better, until once we were down in the station we could see all the way up the mountain to where we had turned around.

As so we went back to the apartment for a cuppa.

Col du Retour, France

The weather was due to change today, but it would not be until the afternoon.

Yesterday we had seen some valleys off the main Val d'Isere road, and close to Bourg St Maurice.

The first of these was heading due north from a bend in the road, just after a place called Plan Du Pre. We turned up a mountain road, until we could go no further and parked with some other vehicles on the side of the road.

Skis on our backs we walked up the road until we could find a track just above the road , from here the snow had drifted and we could make good progress.

After we got out of the woods we followed the road as it worked it way up the valley.
When the road crossed over to the other side and worked its way up there we stayed on the path on the left bank.

We followed this new path as it went deep up the valley, until the valley opened out.

At this point we worked our way up to the left and headed for some building we saw up on the skyline.


As it was a good day and this was a nice place to stop, but we had half an hour before the turn around time ...  time for a bit of a play, and practice some avalanche rescue techniques.

After all the messing around and a bite to eat, we prepared for the descent and more fun.

The slopes were good spring snow after the good weather we had been having and we soon dropped back down through the valley

 The road section was flat, but the track solid enough so that we did not have to do too much poleing.

Down at the bottom we could straight across the slopes higher up and miss the road  but we did have to avoid the avalanche debris.

A good day, and a new area explored a little bit more, even though we did not make a summit.

Travel day,. France

Our time at the gite had finished ..  we wanted to go and spend some time up near Val d'Isere and explore what it had to offer..

We drove out to Grenoble, up to Albertville and around to Bourg St Maurice, before heading up to Val d'Isere. We arrived just at lunchtime, so while we waited for the tourist information to reopen we wondered around, and took in the opulence of everything there ... even the parking cost us.

Looking in the tourist information, showed us that there was not many gites advertised and they were keen to get us into ski accommodation. Very expensive ski accommodation. There must be Gites around but we had not been able to find information easily .. no mobile internet in these days.

We dropped back down the valley and looked into Bourg St Maurice.. they were the same but not so expensive, however they did indicate a new area, Vallandry, and we gave in and took an apartment for the rest of the week, and into the next ... this part week we would find in the coming years hard to repeat.

We drove up to Vallandry, and checked in ...  a very concrete dormitory village serving the ski area of Les Arcs.


We had a small 4 person apartment with two bunks in the corridor and a bed sofa in the main room, and a little cooking corner.

Home for the next few days, we carried our kit up the 3 flights of stairs and settled in.

La Grave, France

 More good weather, and time for a bit of stretching the skiing.. Off to La Grave.

We went to the top of the bubble lift and and came down the route to the left after the initial slope.

this took us down to the refuge area, and then ot the middle station (the bottom runs were short of snow).

After this we went up to the top again form here we went up to the drag lifts on the glacier above ... just in time to see the tractor drag come over from Les Deux Alps.

We went to the highest point with the idea to drop from the top to the bottom, in one go.

 This time we dropped to the right as we came down. and went down the valley under the Meige.

Another good day and tired and well exercised we stopped as the sun started to go down.

La Gardiole, France

Another good day in prospect. We chose to go to explore the north of Briancon. One area in particular was around Col De Granon.. from here there would be easy access to the ridge and the tops along it.

Where we would go would depend on how far up the road we could get.

As it turned out we could get up to the airstrip, but the pastures on each side were very patchy, so we dropped back down to the picnic site, which also had a good area to park.

We could also get on the path through the woods, and hopefully find a route that was still covered in snow.

We came out of the woods just below the col, and followed the road to it. From the col we cut left up the ridge as it gently rose towards the ridge we were heading for.

As we got closer to the ridge we needed to identify our target .. and chose the top marked as La Gardiole.. this took us to the right on the ridge in a gentle rise.





From the top we had a good look back where we had come from and see the complete route, as well as down to Briancon.

After we had eaten and taken the skins off we started down. The top section was good spring snow and we had good skiing.

Then back down the ridge it was more schussing, and excellent snow.

Then into the woods, and  the final section back to the car. This was a little scary as we were not totally in control and had to make some tight turns ...  Back to the van and to the gite.

Pic Blanc, France

 Another excellent day, so time to drag out the old favorite of Pic Blanc, Bryon and I would have preferred to do one of the peaks on the other side if the valley, but we were not yet fit enough. I was also worried about my knee doing some of the steep descents they would call for.

So parking in the lay-by just after the avalanche tunnel we set off up the lower east facing slopes, making our route up the wide open lower slopes below the col du Galibier.

Above us you could pick out the road as it cut across before disappearing into the upper pasture before the final zigzags to the col.

This trip we had cut up the valley left of where we went last time and picked up the road at the hairpin, before cutting up left to meet the previous route.

Now we followed where we had been before and kept a straight line into the upper bowls.

At this point I was really feeling my knee, despite all the ironmongery, so I elected to stay put whilst the others summited .. the thought of the top section was putting me off.

I am not sure if the break did me much good as I struggled to keep the knee moving, but eventually they re-joined me. We set off back down.

The initial sections are straight schusses with a couple of drops in nice spring snow. Then we were on the road ... we should have followed the old route...  this was too flat and too soft to keep up any speed and we ended up poleing a lot.




However once we dropped down off the road onto the Eastern slopes things got better and we could put in some turns.

Safely back at the van I was relieved that my knee ha come through the ordeal and was now confident I would not suffer too much effects for the rest of this tour.

Refuge Villar d'Arene, Franc

 Arriving at the gite last night and had an excellent feed, we chose to do a warm up route up the valley today.

The sun was welcoming us to the Ecrins and we walked down to the end of the track and got our skis ready and put the skins on.

There was a lot of tracks and there and this was obviously a popular place to go into the mountains.

 The track headed off up the valley on a very flat trajectory, as it followed the river plain to where the valley narrowed.

As the valley narrowed we followed the left hand bank for a while as the river snaked below.

 At the end of the valley the path climbed up a steep bank, and then worked it way up a very patchy, rock strewn slope to get to the upper pastures.

The path was very icy here and the debate over crampons went on, however we struggled on.

 Once in the upper pastures there was some respite for a while, until it reached the next wall to be over come.

This had more snow on and was a little easier.

 Above the wall we reached the next pasture, and stopped at the weather station.
Time was passing, and we chose not to push on to the hut.

 We dropped back down the slopes, on the spring snow, which gave a good surface to blow away the cobwebs for the year.

Dropping down the patchy slope on the final wall, was a bit of a nightmare for me..  forcing my ski around on a very tight turn, I tweaked a knee ligament, and there was much swearing, and cursing.  However strapping it up I continued, which I believe kept it supple for the day.

The poleing on the flat section at the end was an effort, however we had supplies all lined up to go with the tea as we sat in the common room. I was worried what my knee would be like tomorrow, but Bryon had some ironmongery to support it, and we had a night to rest it.