Yesterday I met up with Anny and Guy at Prabert with the idea of climbing to the Col de l’Aigleton. The idea was to find some slopes sheltered from the strong northerly wind that was moving a lot of snow around. The route to the col is a series of short 30 degree pitches… all of which could potentially be dangerous but none were very exposed neither could much snow be mobilized.

The roads above 600m were still snow covered and it was bitterly cold at the car park. At one time you could drive up to 1350m but the former “route national” is closed following a landslide and we doubt it will ever reopen, certainly not in the winter. Fortunately there was skiable snow from the village at 1050m and 30cm of fresh by the time we reached the forest at 1300.

At 1800m the track opened out into the Venetier valley, not a trace in site apart from a group heading to the Aigleton, we followed their route until they climbed very high on the left bank under cliffs, it seemed a bit strange and when we crossed them on their way down they were complaining about the dangerous snow pack.

It was chilly at the summit and we couldn’t wait to ski down. Slabby snow just under the col but this soon gave way to 30cm of power on a hard base. If you skied “properly” you could avoid touching this despite the lightness of the fresh snow. A few nasty rocks were just disguised enough by the fresh snow and both Anny and I got gashed.

The forest was as good as I’ve found it, it is a series of clearings linked by short paths we call “le border cross”, great for technique.