Bois des Ayes, France

Today would be our last on this trip, the weather had turned, and the clouds were back.

We took the opportunity to do a little exploring and reconnaissance.

The next valley West from the Col D'Izoard, led up to the col des Ayes, and there was a parking spot at the chalets des Ayes. We parked there and went for a walk.

We headed up the GR5 towards the col where after a couple of kilometres, there was a track leading around tot the right ...

We took this track as a way to get back to van. the track lead around the wooded hilltop in a big curve, to get to the other valley which forked from the parking lot.

We dropped into the new valley and followed the forest trails back to the van.

The next day we packed up the apartment and headed back to the channel a couple of days early.

End of another year's trip

Clot la Cima, France

The Skies were clear and it was going ot be a good day again..  We decided to head up to the Col d'Izoard again, but this time we would make for the Clot la Cima, a prominent peak to the West of the col.

We parked in the same place as last time, at le Laus and walked up the road, past the road block, and on towards the pass.

There was much less snow on the road than last week, and we had to carry the skis the first set of hairpins.

We followed the same route as last week and cut the hairpins in the same way.

At the point where the road reached the second flat zone, we split off the trail trying to find the route through the trees as shown on the map.

We set off following tracks and soon realised that we were a little low and had to fight through the trees to get to the right trail.

This was harder than it looked and just reinforced my belief in woods taking a long time to navigate in.

After struggling in the woods for what seemed an eternity, we eventually came out in the valley where the track was plain to see and we were back on track.

We could now see the col that was our first objective... the idea was to make the col then cut up the ridge.

This was further than it appeared, and we had a number of bowls to climb through just to get close.

In the last plateau we did a time check and realised we were desperately behind schedule to get to the summit.

Suffice it to say just getting to the col before our extended reserve time limit passed would be hard.

Stretching it a very little and we made the col, just as the clouds came in over the summit, but luckily not the col.

We rapidly took the skins off and prepared for the descend, and dropped off the ridge, and headed back the way we had come.

We need not have worried, as the clouds blew over, but the time we were back at the bowls and readying for the drop to the valley.

With the benefit of looking down we could see the better lines, and soon found the route we should have taken on the ascent.

This was a lot less trouble than we had fighting through the trees on the way up.

Soon we were back on the road and working our way back down. It was not long before we were hopping over the bare patches, and eventually we were back at the end of the snow.

From here it was the long walk back to the van.

The day had been a good idea, but we lost so much time in the woods, that we had to devise an alternative summit. Albeit we had a good day.

Saurel, France

After the clear night, the day was going to be brilliant. We headed just over the border to Claviere. the sun had still not got down into the valley, when we started out, and the piste we started on was still very hard, and icy.
The track we were following was a summer road that lead to the farms.

Over the initial slopes the track lead to a chalet restaurant serving the pistes in season, but now all shut up.

The view behind was of Mont Chaberton, and you could imagine the battery up there threatening the valley in the first war. It would have been an excellent view point.

We followed the ski piste upwards heading to the main top of the ski area, but a number of the sections of the piste were exceedingly bare.

Up at the top there was at least a bit more snow and the pistes were a lot more covered.

After collecting our selves at the Col la Bercia, and trying to avoid the tourists, we set off towards the north, and a peak we could see in the distance. ...

It was on the same ridge line as the other two we had done in the area, and made an obvious target.

We followed the track as it pushed away from civilisation, and the tracks got less used, and the trails older.

As we got closer to the peak the snow also got sparser, and we had to start finding the linking sections, so we could keep the skis on.

The last section up to the top, suddenly opened out and there was more wind blown snow in drifts.

The final section offered even more snow, and you could even believe it was higher up.

The top was very wind blown and we were back to linking snow patches, but the weather was gorgeous.

We paused to take in the view and have some food and drink, sitting in the warm sun.

Then we set off back down. from the top we could see a different route back, and a quick check on the map showed it move down past the riffugio plan Gimont.

We dropped down into the valley and picked up the trail down the valley.

Once down on the trail it lead to the riffugio and a frozen lake.

From here we were back on the pistes and looking up to the Mont Chaberton.

A really good day

Valley Walk, France

The clouds were still down, and we had enough of wandering up the pistes, and did not yet have the confidence to head into the unknown of the clouds, we chose to just go for a walk.

We headed out of town up the GR5, there was a vague thought to head for the refuge Les Sept Fontaines, but it was really a "see how far we get" kind of walk.

We followed the GR5 for quite a way up the valley under the Cote Jalabert.

We lost the path in the snow, and went up a canyon for a bit of sport, and to see how far we would get, before we were forced to turn around. About 2100m we turned around.

Making our way back we started to see clearer bits in the sky,, hopeful that this would mean tomorrow would be a better day. Things improved greatly after day and the light were shone on Janus opposite the apartment, making a great picture.

Rest Day, France

The grey skies returned and we felt we had earned a rest day ...

We went into Briancon and visited the castle and the down through the old town, before looking for some lunch.

After lunch we went up the valley to Nevache, to have a look what routes there were, and have a general reconnaissance.

Tete de Fourneous, France

The sun was coming up, and it was going to be a great day. We had looked at Mont Chaberton, but believed it to be a little too far for us. However opposite the ridge had some tops we would be capable for.

 We worked our way up the piste (it had been kept white with artificial snow), which was still there even thought the lifts were now closed.

 As we came into the bowl at the top of the path (where the chair lift ended and opened out with drag lifts).
We could see a vague line of snow we could go up to the ridge, but it was very thin.

The snow got really patchy in places, but we managed to get  up to the ridge and then worked our way up it to the main lift station on the ridge.

From here we kept going up the ridge to the Tete de Fourneous. this was a little rounded top.

From the top we could look down to the  valley behind, as well as along the ridge.

Bryon took the opportunity to work along the ridge on his own to the Grand Chalvet, whilst Chris and I waited, ad took photos.

Once Bryon was back from his excursion, we dropped back to the station on the ridge, before dropping down the piste line .. We were really in luck, the snow that had fallen over the past couple of days had blown in to here and there was some good powder for us to play on.

After the excitement of this "first tracks" experience, it was more mundane on the narrow white track back to the valley.
As we got lower the snow go more and more rotten and heavy. It was not going to last much longer.