La Botte is the twin summit of the Croix de Chamrousse a bit to the north-east of the resort. Most people do a quick up and down from the N/W ridge but I recently saw that Cecile Eichinger had climbed via an east facing couloir.

http://cecile.over-blog.net/article-quand-la-montagne-nous-reserve-de-belles-couleurs-65675917.html

la Botte

It seemed like a fairly quick route to take from the resort. This isn’t the first time I’ve done the lac Achards route but it may be the last ! Seriously it is not easy to keep to the trail with snowshoe tracks all over the place to lead you astray. I wonder if it is not quicker to climb to the top of the lac Achard chair and ski the east faces as it recommended by some people (as described below). Afterwards there is a long traverse to the col de l’Infernet. Here I was tempted by pt 2080 m but didn’t have the time to climb and ski it. The snow looked quite good though.

Pt 2080, small round summit on the left.

The west face of the Botte was a fairly easy climb but the descent (by the slope on the left) was on hard snow, rough on the surface but with good grip, not totally reassuring. It would probably have been perfect around 1-2pm. As so often ski touring is a matter of good, or bad, timing.

lac Achard, col de l’Infernet is on the right

Range: Belledonne, Northern French Alps
Aspect: West
Start Altitude: 1754: Motoneige school at Bachat Bouloud (by the bridge)
Summit: 2248m
Rating: 3.1/E2
Gear: ski crampons, crampons depending on the conditions
Map: Carte IGN n°3335 OT Grenoble
Road Access: Grenoble -> Uriage -> Chamrousse Roche Béranger

There are two choices, either follow the hiking trail to the Lacs Achard (don’t climb too high) or climb to the summit of the Lacs Achard chair and descend the east facing slopes (35° over 50m). 170 meters -ve

As a detour from the lacs Achard put your skins on and climb the couloir under the Rocher de la Perche, 2152 (Sud, 45° over 50m).

Rocher de la Perche

Climb to the col de l’Infernet. From here it can be interesting to climb to point 2080 meters to the south of the col to descend the N/E facing slopes (chance of powder).

Climb the west face of the Botte to the S/E ridge just below the summit. Descend the west face. (40° over 75 meters). Return to the resort via the col des Fontaines / Croix de Chamrousse. The slopes down to Bachat Bouloud under the lac Achard are not very skiable.