Another clear, bright day, however it was colder than the previous days, so
there was a delayed start to get out. Just Steph and I today and we planned to
do a ski tour up to the Le Planay ski area along the back way. Starting down the
liaison piste to the descent from Areches ski area then climbing up the side of
Grand Combe to come out beside the restaurant / middle chair lift station.
We parked in the shadows at the bottom of the two main lifts in Le Planay.
And set of along the liaison piste to the centre de vacancies.
At the point where the piste rears up and climbs steeply we left the piste and
turned down beside a small chalet.
Turning off here and along the river beside Quefins, then almost immediately
down the track (with a no entry sign but multiple footpath signs).
This went back down to the river and crossed heading towards some buildings.
There pinned to the sign was a big notice that stated the footpath we wanted was
closed and we needed to use the next one.
This track took us straight up the ridge to Les Combettes, rather than
zigzagging through the trees and using forest roads. We would have to carry skis
from here on our packs through the forest.
Up the footpath as it zigzagged steeply up the ridge with many places where the
path was used as a watercourse and was iced solid. We had to find ways around
the barriers.
After the initial steepness faded slightly the path moved out to wider clearing
but still with a zigzag path.
Higher up the slope lessened slightly more - but still zigzagging.
About three quarters f the way through the trees the view opened up across over
Le Planay.
Into the snowline, but the track was pitted with footprints and a completely
churned up by previous passages.
The end of the trees opened up to a wider gully, heading up to chalets of Les
Combettes.
The track finally came out into the upper pasture area welcomed by a livestock
shed. We paused here for a breather and to get the skis back on. The sun was
shining onto the slope and we could at last strip off a few layers.
Up through the bowls above following a faint skin track made by some previous
parties.
When climbing towards the sun it was difficult to see anything with the
glare.
The skin track zigzagged up to the steeper rocky slopes above.
We lost the skin track as it approached an upper rocky barrier - the map showed
the path splitting here with one side (the one we wanted) cutting over to the
bottom of the upper chair lift, and the second curving the opposite way to get
around the barrier and reach the top of the same chairlift.
We turned right
and followed some footprints going in our direction (as well as ski tracks
coming down). And could see the restaurant across a valley.
A scabby trace then led us around the base of the rocky barrier and around the
edge of Grande Combe.
It became very difficult work here as no one had ascended here for a while and
we were following where people had skied down As this approached the piste the
sun disappeared behind the outcrop and it got really cold once again.
Before ending up at a break in the ski safety barrier and we could re-join the
piste.
A pause to remove skins and prepare for downhill, hopefully finding some more
sun.
Down beside the bottom station of the top chairlift we found a nice hollow below
a snow cannon in full sun and paused for lunch.
Then down the Le Planay pistes to the bottom... back in the shade once we
had passed the chairlift we stopped at - it would be the last sun we saw before
driving back down the valley.
Back at the car we quickly got out of ski mode and into the car to defrost, then
back to the chalet for warm drinks and more calories
