Col d'Arclusaz

Ski Areas > Northern Alps > Bauges > Bellevaux > Col d'Arclusaz

Description

Park at the fork in the road that leads to the chapel of Notre Dame de Bellevaux at around 800metres.

L'Arcalod and the Combe de Arclusaz

From the road climb the road to the Chapel of Notre Dame de Bellevaux, continue along the road in a westerly direction until a footpath is reach that climbs to the Chalet du Pra. At the exit of the forest the skier is confronted by a wide valley and steep climb to the Col (attention barb wire fences) passing by the Chalet des Arbets. The col is situated at 1770 meters.

Comments

I'd been introduced to the delights of the Bauges mountains by my friend Philippe the summer before. We'd made a weekend tour with Kate, Sylvie and Amanda. After spending the night in Jarsy (which has the best chocolate shop in the Alps) we climbed to a small farm below the Pointe d'Arcalod where we spent the night sleeping in a barn above the cows.The farm made cheese during the summer and the farmer's nieces and nephews were spending an innocent summer far from the big city.Well fairly innocent, the main job of a delightful teenage girl just on the verge of womanhood, apart from showing us how to milk cows, was separating the her uncle's two dogs who seemed intent on setting the record for non-stop copulation. The landscape looked ideal for ski or snowshoe tours.

So it was that I found myself on the twisting road that leads into the Vallee de Bellevaux in the middle of January 1998. I crossed the bridge over the river to the left bank and parked the car where a fork in the road lead up to the small chapel of the Notre Dame de Bellevaux. I tracked back up this road and made the mistake of turning south east past the chapel, in fact I should have continued westwards to until a small path leads up to the left to the Chalet du Pra. The path I was taking was slowly leading to a dead end valley beneath Mt Pecloz. This became evident after I'd hauled myself up an extremely steep path to the Chalet Bothier. Mt Pecloz had recently been skied and there were some perfect tracks leading down the steep North East face.

Mont Peclod

After studying my map and realising there was no way to climb out of steep valley I followed a track to the right which I hoped would take me into the correct valley. It did and I descended through some woods then began climbing again. I had started out around 1 pm and it was now 3.00 pm with a considerable climb ahead of me.

Combe d'Arclusaz

I pushed on as fast as possible as the sun raced towards the horizon, the slope grew steeper and I crossed into shadow on the left bank of the valley. A few zig-zags brought me to the col and a fantastic view over the Tarentaise and Belledonne mountains?. The valley and foothills opposite were bereft of snow, although I'd been climbing in around 15cm of heavyish powder.

View from the Col d'Arclusaz

I reached the col around 4.30pm and the sun was already hanging low on the horizon. I took off my skins, dug my skis into the windblown snow and took in the view. Behind the mountains of the Trelod and Pointe d'Arcalod were visible. The summit of the Dent d'Arclusaz was just 270 meters to my right but the slope did not look easy on skis. It would have to wait for later.

Bauges in Winter

The descent was straightforward, the main danger being the half buried barb wire fences which cover many mid-mountain areas. I took the correct path down the valley this time, a narrow rutted track but with enough snow to ski. It wasn't easy in the growing darkness.

I finally got back to the car as night was falling.

davidof 20th January 1998

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