Am thinking of some hut to hut tours next March in the Ecrins. I have been trying to find a guidebook in English with no success. Can anyone offer any advice?  Thanks

Huge chain of mountain. What time do you have and what kind of difficulty you intend to tackle?

We will have about 9 days. The ideal would be two 2-3 day tours. Not sure where to base ourselves yet, was hoping to get some advice from anyone with experience of the area. When it comes to difficulty we are both newcomers to touring with a couple of years experience. Prepared to skin and climb to do any routes.

There are glaciers as soon as you go inside the range, therefore you also have to be prepared and equiped for crevasse safety.

A very famous area is the Glacier Blanc leading up to les Ecrins (4000m+ at the Dôme), a superb summit that is relatively easy to ski. And on the sides of the glacier there are plenty of other nice peaks. There are 2 huts along the glacier, Refuge du Glacier Blanc and Refuge Caron, you may spend 4 days in the area without getting bored on very skiable slopes, usually no difficult climbing involved.

Another very scenic tour lasting about 4 days is around la Meije (a few meters short of 4000m but you won’t ski this one, only admire it!). It goes through a series of saddles and passes, with different options and huts, but couloir skiing and possibly abseiling is on the menu, more mountaineering experience is needed than for the Glacier Blanc.

And they are many other possibilities!…

Last but not least, the best time is usually more April and May, March might be early in terms of weather and snow conditions.

If you wanted to go step by step you could also spend half of your time in nearby Queyras as a warm up (superb mountains for ski touring, no glacier, huts in villages, exceptional weather) and then move up to Massif des Ecrins.

Agneaux on the left, Ecrins on the right, seen from the North.

Ecrins on the left, La Meije on the right, seen from the North.

Queyras, paradise for ski touring

Tour of la Meije is a classic and you had good contions.

Over on the Berade side there is some good touring but March may be too early to get beyond St Christophe en Oisans. I think the road opens in early April (like that to Madame Carle). I remember doing some stuff up to the Refuge de la Pilate, you can tour over to the pic du Neige Cordier then down the the refuge de l’Alpe above Villar d’Arene. You need to have glacier equipment for this tour.

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/caf.briancon/RefugeAlpe.htm

This is a video from part of our tour

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8009973217128158544#

This is looking down from the Pic du Neige Cordier, the easy route back to the refuge de l’Alpe follows the glacier to the left.

The more direct route is by the Breche de Neige Cordier, this is the entrance

The route is prone to some rockfall and a helmet is a good idea.

it was March and the weather wasn’t great but at least we got some fresh air. I think we went to the Col du Lavey one day which is fairly easy touring then the Pic de Neige Cordier, les Agneaux and the Davin where I managed to fracture my ankle (game over!).