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Draille du Charmilles, Chartreuse, France
Posted: 18 November 2007 10:44 AM  
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A long trip today. I wanted to take a look at la Drailles du Charmilles above les Pres. Here is a tour of the horizon from Mont Blanc to the left

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to le Pinet on the right.

The road after les Pres was too icy for my car, even with new snow tires. So I parked at 950 meters. A 4x4 had managed to forge a way through to the summer car park at 1400 meters and forestry workers were still hard at work felling trees.

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The cold snap had frozen the fountain at the car-park. It was murky going, with an inversion layer trapping clouds in the valley below 1650 meters.

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Frost had formed on the trees in the super cold air.

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The yellow rocks of the northern Chartreuse began to appear out of the mist

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There was a fantastic view of le Mont Blanc across the valleys

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The descent from croix de l’alpe looked quite tempting, more snow than at the end of January 2007

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There was a lot of snow banked up on the vires

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The Granier loomed on the horizon like a giant whale

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The South face of the Grands Moulins, I’d skied this in mid-January in spring snow conditions

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The Cross of the Alpe

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and then some turns down to the pas de l’Echelle

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The westerly winds had left a lot of hoar frost on the trees (a good clue to the prevailing winds of the last days)

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The entrance to the Draille is a bit “scaborous” as the French say. A bit more snow and it would be skiable

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and then the grassy slopes of the Charmille

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zig-zagging between the small rock bands

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I couldn’t find any route description for skiing the Charmille. The entrance is hard to find so it is possible that no-one comes this way in the winter. Maybe a Volodia or local (Roch Pelens?) has skied it?

Note: the Charmille are a decidous tree (hornbean or Carpinus betulus) that presumably can be found in this spot.

[ Edited: 20 November 2007 10:37 AM by davidof]