Ski Touring: Heavy snow on the Belle Etoile

Fri, 22 May 2015

Technical

Description

We set off to tour around and enjoy the beautiful mountains but finally we just did a return to the Belle Etoile and it was not bad at all.

We started at 7am. David put skis on a few minutes from the car park at 1500 meters with a few cm of hard snow. Cold, fresh snow and beautiful environment.... and alone in the world. It was like the first snow of autumn covering the mountains, and also a return to spring.

We had to take skis off for a couple of short sections after the Pra cottage, to get over a bride and a during a steep wooded section. Then the snow was immaculate. A handsome mountain goat in the distance. It is like in the movies but we still have to break trail in all the fresh snow. It is a mixed bag, granules, some sections are a bit dubious, or not, it is really good but the strong spring sun softened the snow a lot below 2000 meters and at noon it is almost waterskiing with snow snails on every turn. To sum up it was really good higher up but there was zero visibility with low cloud. Grrrrrr!

We arrive at the summit by the South couloir, I'm dubious about the loaded slopes, we take the simplest option by choosing a few cm of fresh snow with a good solid base. Crampons and 50 meters of scramble and voila. Then we follow the ridge to the antennas that have taken on the look of a small chapel.

We rest in the sun and observe the sea of clouds that rises, falls and rises caressing the mountain ridges. Finally, we have to go. Diving into the grey abyss. We follow the climbing tracks to as to not get lost in the large Belledonne valleys, although that is unlikely. the snow is excellent and despite the zero visibility, great fun.

We cross three guys who are enjoying our trail. Maybe they'll have better visibility on the way down? At around 2200 we ski out of the clouds into a grey atmosphere, we continue down, other summits will have to wait for another day with more light. We finally reach 1600meters and just 15 minutes walk to the car park.

– Luc Thollet

Weather: Sunny at first, caught by cloud at 11am

Access: Snow from 1000m but road clear.

Country: France Area: Belledonne Trailhead: Pleynet

Participants:Luc