Sun, 9 April 2023
Vertical Climbed: 3,986 meters (13,078 feet)
Vertical Descended: 3,983 meters
Trip Report
Tot reminded me that it was 5 years since we last skied at Chamrousse, at least alpine skied. We'd toured and I'd nordic skied since but lockdown had interrupted our alpine skiing for 2 year. 5 years already. We decided to head up for 9.30am. The drive up had zero traffic and entering into resort it was like a ghost town. Maybe everyone was hunting easter eggs in the valley? Finally we saw a lift turning. We parked on the edge of the slopes and headed down to Roche Beranger. My lift pass didn't work very well, I had to hold it right over the sensor to get it to activate. Maybe they really do need changing after a few seasons? The liftie told us the cable car was broken but they were working on it. Bummer.
We skied around Roche Be for a while. The snow was very hard and after about 6 weeks not skiing it was a bit of a shock. We then saw the cable car running so skied over to the Recoin but they were just testing. Fortunately they'd opened a chair and we did a few laps on that side of the mountain where the pistes were better to ski. Finally, we some trepidation in case it broke down, we went to the Croix de Chamrousse to ski down to the Lac Roberts. This small run is a bit of an anomaly. A short piste to nowhere served by a slow 4 man chair. It was originally built as a link into an expansion into the Belledonne backcountry that never happened due to protests from ski tourers who see this as their back yard. The snow had seen more sun and was very pleasant to ski. The couloir de Casserouse was open. This iconic run is normally closed as it is a wind tunnel and has little snow despite the altitude. I'd skied it many times ski touring but never nicely pisted. There is a huge bridge across it, part of the attempts by the resort to rebrand itself as an adventure park. The run was excellent but the runout, in the shade, was on very icy snow. A quick tour of the Olympic Men's black then back down to the car. 40km of skiing, not a huge amount but a nice morning out in the sun.
Hard snow in the morning, -4C at dawn. Softening a bit in the sun. Frozen crud to powder off piste. Surprisingly good skiing on piste considering the season.
