Distance: 15.1 km
Trip ReportsVertical Climbed: 800 meters (2,625 feet)
Vertical Descended: 1,200 meters
Avalanche Risk: 2
Snowline: 800
"We do these things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win" - John Fitzgerald Kennedy
It felt like my own moon landing. Years of preparation, waiting for good conditions. I'd scoped out the couloir a few years before in the summer. It is not easy to get too, it is not easy to return. In the summer it is clear the access is near vertical with a nasty step a third way down the couloir, then skiing into the unknown forests of the sinister Valombre (valley of shadows).
I'd been working in Paris this week so was a bit tired. Quite a hard climb to Mont Fromage, a ski down to the Oratory in crusty snow then the climb up to the Charmant Som. All pretty easy. The entrance to the NW couloir was steep and icy, I side slipped a bit to power on ice and skied down to the entrance of the west bowl, skied yesterday and it looked like the snow was good. Then a traverse over to the entrance of the Combe de l'If on a mix of sunny nearly transformed snow and little ramps of powder. It is a bit up and down.
Then at 1700m I saw the beast. The cornice had already been broken so it was possible to downclimb. I started off without crampons but it got icy so climbed back and fixed them. About 5 meters of very steep descent to a ledge under several tonnes of cornice. I didn't hang around, I only had a bit over a meter of headroom. The start of the couloir was 5cm of powder on hard snow, again I sideslid a few meters until the snow deepened a bit then skied down in excellent conditions searching the best snow on the left and right banks. The center of the couloir had a small "goulotte" but nothing disturbing.
The If is a fairly confidential route, not often skied due to the cornice and steepness. The French would call it a Couenne à Ski - a bacon rind; not big enough to be a major line but hard and gnarly. The snow was good to the forest where I skied down the valley back to the St Pierre road, well as far as 800m - about 1.5km from the road. Not bad for the end of March.
Route Taken: Climbed via Canaple route to Mt. Fromage
Weather: Cool south wind. Clear and sunny but not too warm.
Access: Clear, snow in car park
Country: France Area: Chartreuse Trailhead: Cottaves
