There is still some ski touring about. Lack weekend we skied toured the Etendart from the col de la croix de Fer with the snow level around 2150 meters on north facing slopes (2400 on east slopes).

The last week has been warm apart from Wednesday night which saw thunderstorms in the Savoie and snow down to 3000 meters. Tours such as Mont Pourri are still possible from les Arcs with little carrying. Snowline is around 2250 meters. There is also some touring at Val Thorens with the snowline at the 2300-2400 m level. Here you can climb fairly high with a light car on the tracks used to service the ski lifts. The high road passes of the Cormet de Roselund, Iseran and Val Cenis also offer some possibilities.

The lack of snow this year means the crevasses are beginning to appear or are weakly bridged on glaciated routes.

I went up to the 7 Laux ski resort today. There has been snow to around 1300 meters overnight but by midday it had already melted up to around the 1500 meter line. Higher up, around 2200 meters there had been 15cm of snow and quite a lot of wind. There has been more like 30cm of snow further north on the Mont Blanc, again with a lot of wind.

The Swiss are suggesting risk 3, Considerable, above 2500 meters in the Mont-Blanc range and that can be applied elsewhere.

Snow this time of year to lowish altitudes is nothing unusual. Last June we were making fresh tracks down to 1600 meters.

There was another 10-15cm of overnight snow so there is quite a depth at 2000+ meters. On south facing slopes this is sitting straight on the ground and there will be some quite considerably purges when the sun comes out. Temperatures look to stay fresh tomorrow and this could give some excellent final touring days.

35cm in the Rotondo massif of Corsica… and two dead hikers Two dead in French snow storms

Seracs on the Mont Pourri

Yesterday was what should be our absolute last day of skiing this season when we tackled the west face of Mt Pourri in the Tarentaise. A rare ski trip out of the Isere for me.

We left from Arc 2000, driving up the service track to the snowline at 2250 meters. The refreeze was poor until around the top of the Grand Col chair, then we had to fix ski crampons for the climb up to the col des Roches. A scramble in iffy snow down the col des Roches before being enveloped in cloud around 3650 meters on the Mont Pourri. We didn’t climb to the summit due to the vis. but stopped at the arete.

A ski down the glacier du Geay - quite a lot of very big and very open crevasses, others poorly bridged by the soft snow. The snowline on south-facing slopes was at 2600 meters with a short walk to the Pourri refuge before climbing up to the Gd. Col chair. There was snow just above the refuge a 2400m in this valley, helped by the very flat slope angle and the shelter from the mountain.

There was some avalanche activity. We kicked off a small sluff about 20cm deep which was not bonded to the harder, old snow.
Anyway that should be it, see you in 2007-8.

Trip Report - skitour.fr