Charmant Som From Les Cottaves

Ski-Areas > Northern Alps > Isère (38) > Chartreuse > Col de Porte > Charmant Som from les Cottaves

Description

From the Cottaves (try not to park in the village it annoys the locals) follow the track marked Charmant Som in front of a house. The path heads up into the woods to the left with some cliff bands to your right. When you reach the small col (open prairies) of Maubouchet head right to follow a track that leads up to another clearing. Attention this zone is avalanche prone. The woods thin out at the top of this clearing and the slope is gentler. Head north (cliff bands on left this time) to the summit which is usually marked by a cross.

From the col de Maubouchet plunge into a north-east facing couloir to take slopes dominated by some fantastic cliffs. The landscape is really awesome. This is a good plan when the snow cover in the forest is poor (toponeige rating 3.1)

A hundred meters before the forest cabin (1250m) climb the cliffs through a mound for 20 minutes then plunge into a wonderful forest of pine trees that take you all the way to the Cottaves.

Trip Reports

27th December 2007

Part of loop with Charmant-Som-North-west-Couloir

South slopes of the Charmant Som

• Weather : Cloudy in morning, sun later
• Avalanche Risk: Low (1/5)
• Participants: Luc, David
• Snow line: 1080m
• Video Charmant Som - google video

17th December 2005

Rotten weather but good to get out, blue skies appeared on the descent, superb. We skied the north-east slopes under the Maubouchet. Excellent. Some large slabs had slid under the cliffs. This variation gives some good skiable snow to Revol, afterwards you have to take the road to Cottaves. (see variation above)

• Weather : Cloudy in morning, sun later
• Avalanche Risk: Low (1/5)
• Participants: Luc, David
• Snow line: 1300m

10th April 2004

After having made a U-turn on the Merlet at 1450 meters yesterday due to 80cm of fresh snow we decided to head to the Chartreuse this morning. No tracks, 50cm of powder from the car-park. The climb was fairly tough for those that made tracks – Lil’ Seb, Cyrl, Guillaume, Me and one of the chicks.

No base below 1600 m but enough fresh snow to ski directly through the trees on the stream bed. The slope was 35-40 degrees at some points, right to the car park without ruining the skis.

• Weather : Snow, Cloud at the summit + strong wind from east
• Avalanche Risk: Considerable (3/5)
• Participants: David, Cyril, Renaud, p'tit Seb, Grand Seb, Manue, Lolo, Caty, Marco, Cédric, Guillaume
• Snow line: 1300m

Category: Trip Reports

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