14 April 2004

Pas de la Beccia, France

 Today the weather cleared, the sky was clear but there was a new front coming over later in the day. So an opportunity, and I had been eyeing up the col at the top of the range between Val Cenis and Termignon ski areas.

My first thought was to go over the col and drop down the other side then back around the lake to the col Cenis, where we had been a few days before. However plans changed during the day.

We drove down the road to Lanslebourg and got an early morning parking slot opposite the tourist information office.

We bought a once up ticket and moved over to the chair, waiting for it to open.  We had considered skining all the way but did not think we could do all the height gain.

At the top of the lift we moved over to the edge of the ski area and put the skins on and stripped off for the ascent.

The first section followed a track as it contoured around the nearest ridge end, gaining only a small amount of height.

Once round in front of the bowl we turned South and headed into the wilderness.

We followed a few tracks that had been made yesterday, but not very many people had been up here recently.

As we moved closer into the bowls that made up this hanging valley a few clouds started to gather on the tops.

we gradually worked our way up the bowls, getting closer to the col.

As we got into the final bowl the clouds were now down to the col, and we realised we should take care.

The final slopes up to the col, were the steepest section, but also in and out of cloud as they rolled in then moved off.

When we got to the col itself  there was no respite , and the cloud stayed down.

The view was not great, and we could not see the descent down the other side so we decided t go back the way we had come up.

We knew the snow was brilliant powder from our ascent, so we set off to find fresh powder.

then more powder, and more powder.


then we found even more powder.
This continued until we came out of the bowls.


Then we had the track, which was a like a rail track .... skis in the traces and head down.

We eventually popped out on the piste close to where we had started. The  only disappointing part was that there was no sign of the clouds that had plagued the tops.

Next we dropped down the descent route back to the car, tired but elated...

Back at the apartment we could look out on the tops and see the clouds were back.

This would be our last route this trip, as the front crossed over night and the next day was poor. So we headed back.

13 April 2004

Fort Victor Emmanuelle, France

Another grey day ... we were ready for an alternative day. On the last rest day we had passed the fort of Marie Christine, on the road to Modane.

We parked in the car park and wandered around the fort, which was closed.

We noticed another fort on the other side of the valley - Fort Victor Emmanuelle. This perked our interest, and we set about seeing if we could get over to it.

Crossing over a suspension bridge we walked up to this fort, which was open and we were able to wander around this spectacle of a Vauban fort.

From the redoubts we could see the first fort on the other side of the river.

We also noticed a number of via ferrata routes, one even went out of the fort windows.

Behind this fort was an even earlier castle of the medieval period.



 Back at the bridge we looked down into the gorge, and tried to pick out the via ferratas on the rock face rising up below the fort.

12 April 2004

Termignon, France

Another good day forecast, and we chose to go to a ski area we had passed several times. Termignon is a little resort with one access lift from the valley base, but up top has a number of drag lifts.

We parked in the empty car park - the resort was closed for the year - and wandered over to the white ribbon that was all that was left of the descent route. From here we headed off up the frozen track.

We did not see the sun until we were well past the half way point of the descent route, where the chair lift changes wires.  after this we disappeared into the trees on a series of switches, before coming out by the lowest drag lift.

We kept going up to the restaurant and the other two drag lifts. From here we cut up the very steep slopes that exit the bowl in front of the restaurant.

After leaving the bowl behind the upper slopes open out and we got the full impact of this vast undulating plateau.

We Followed up beside the middle drag lift, we were getting close to our turning time, and we settled on prominent bump this was top at 2366m.

The top had some bare patches, so we sat an ate lunch and took in the view - in front was the other side of the valley, and behind was a great view of the continuation of the domain.




After the break we set of down ... the initial sloes were great powder ...  and we all had fun, apart from a spectacular face plant, when I was too over confident.

We made as much use as we could of the fresh snow lying on the good firm base.


We then dropped down into the bowl, before following descent route back to the car..
Although we had started off on the piste the top section was effectively a mountain route, as the pistes were all covered and blown over. We just had the lifts as indicators of where we were.

11 April 2004

Bellecote, France

 We were promised a better day today, and decided to go and explore the slopes at Aussois ...  we had looked at the village on our rest day a couple of days ago.

We took the road up from Modane, and parked in the car park below the lift station. There was still a good amount of snow on the lower pasture.

Our original idea was to follow the line of the lifts up, but we quickly re-evaluated when we saw the forest line, and chose to follow the main descent route in a big zigzag.

There was a little short cut we took that cut the corner off, and was an obvious route used by the downhillers.

After the brief excursion we were back on the piste, or summer road. As we passed under the first lift we cut up the slope.

We cut across the slopes - off piste, to get up to the mid station buildings. We were making our own route at this point so it was a little heavy going.

With relief we reached the buildings and picked up the line of a really long drag lift, that followed the line of the shallow ridge from here to the top station, before turning sharply and going straight up to the top.

This section was a long shallow slope as we followed the line of the lift.

Then we cut left and straight up the final slope, until sweating hard we emerged on the flat area by the top of the lift.

We were now close to our cut off time for the day, so we walked up the slope a little and found a good spot to stop and have lunch.

The clouds were hovering around us, coming and going, but we got a good view.


After the rest we prepared for the descent. Ski on we dropped back down the way we had come up ... the top section was powdery, even the shallower part, but as we got past the mid-station the snow became very wet and slushy, and by the bottom this was quite hard to turn on.

10 April 2004

Val Cenis, France

 The clouds were still here today, and we had our first difference of ideas ..  I did not really want to skin up the piste again, so was prepared to buy a lift pass, the others were still in bed.

I set off for the slopes, after arranging to meet them at the paragliding take-off point, in the centre of the area.

There was very little visibility in the top half of the station, so I took my time working my way up there Testing out the lower red runs, before working over to the col from a couple of days ago.

I then went up to the middle section, and completed the runs there, finish off on the run that went past the Chapelle from the first day.

By now it was time to head off and meet the others, I worked my way back up. Coincidently as I went up the lift I saw the others just tackling the last section.

We all met up for some food and regale each other of tales of the morning.

Then as the top section was still closed I chose to go back down with them .. we still could not see a lot but all of us had been on a serious exercise .