Ski Touring: Back to the winter

Mon, 24 March 2014

Technical

Vertical Climbed: 800 meters (2,625 feet)

Avalanche Risk: 3

Snowline: 1,065

Description

I've never done an Aulp du Seuil as late in the season, and in such conditions. Fantastic snow in the forest, you could imagine you were a freerider, skiing from tree to tree in British Columbia. The Larch!, The Fir!, The Mighty Scots Pine! The smell of Dynafit bindings and we'd sing, SING.... (ok that's enough nonsense-Admin.)

This is one of those local routes that has become very popular over the last decade. Once a TR report is posted it gets repeated ad-infinitum but rapidly fall out of site and mind. So it was this morning when I arrived - the remains of an old track at the car-park which rapidly vanished under fresh snow. I would have the whole 800 meters to do on my own and with only 90 minutes for the climb.

The ski runs of the Col de Marcieu were still snow covered last Monday but on Thursday from the valley that snow had seemingly melted along with the snow in the woods. This was confirmed - 40cm of fresh snow on the pistes but the only base was on the very sheltered left hand side of the runs. Climbing out of the forest two Rock Ptarmigan took flight - this is an endangered species in the French Alps and us ski tourers are constantly being lectured about not skiing in their hibernation grounds - however hunting of this tasty bird is still permitted. The cirque of the Aulp de Seuil had around 50cm of fresh snow with some drifts of a meter deep to cut a track through. Finally about an hour and a quarter after setting out I reached the col. I've done the climb in a bit over 50 minutes but I was pretty happy given the work. I crossed a troup of chamois sheltering under the cliffs at the top of the cirque like smokers outside a London office block on a rainy day. They didn't seem too keen to move despite not liking humans much.

I'd had the idea of skiing back down the way I came up, which apart from barbed wire is safer as long as it doesn't see any sunshine (risk of purges). The entrance to the couloir en Virgule had a lot of snow, the fence poles were buried and lower down the couloir I measured 170cm. I gave a couple of jumps to see if anything would move or if there were any whumpfs. I then investigated the snowpack. In the middle of the couloir the fresh snow had purged leaving 20cm on a refrozen base. The banks however had more than 50cm of fresh snow and were suspect to my eyes. I skied straight down the middle trying to stop as little as possible. Great skiing conditions to the forest.

Well I've told you about the woods. A lack of base under 1500/1450 meters, amazing how quickly a meter of snow can melt then the path which had 40cm of snow directly on the ground but skied without touching bottom. The powder lower down on the pistes was a bit physical but supported the skis well.

I had a chat with a couple of Forestry workers who were inspecting the woods - they want to replace the larch with fir - these are not great for skiing but good for the wood industry.

Weather: Cloudy above 1200 meters. Snow after the forest. About 100meters visibility.

Access: Cleared, a little snow at the Col de Marcieu but ok with summer tires

Country: France Area: Chartreuse Trailhead: Col de Marcieu

Route


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