TR: My holidays in Oisans (with lots of big pics)

A snowHead

Got back on Sunday evening from 8.5 days in the Oisans region in France. You may (if you've been paying attention) know that I am a bit of a fan of this part of the world...

Day 1 - Alpe d'Huez

No new snow for 3 weeks, corn was our best bet. Up to Pierrefeu early doors.

Checking out options for later in the week

At the top of Pierrefeu, you have an obvious option or a scramble over some rocks into a chute. Steve returning to the obvious line after deciding it looked a bit easier for first run of the week

Steve working his way through the bare patches:

The top section was pretty solid but it gave way to lovely corn for the a good portion of the run. We skied down to the summer road and walked back up to the Col du Sarenne for some "bio" apricot juice at the cabin there. Thought it best to steer clear of the "merdes industrielles" :fmicon:

In the afternoon, we decided to give the Pyramid a go.

Walking up: try not to look so nackered, Arno

The rest of the team - barely sweat broken:

But Paul is a bit excited:

At this point, things got a bit complicated as Niall took a tumble on the steep hardpacked entrance to the run. He escaped with a cut to the butt and managed to break one of his bindings. Steve was enlisted to retrieve the ski from where it ended up:

Niall was able to patch the binding up enough to get back to a piste and off the mountain. Meanwhile we decided the Col du Couard offered the maximum possible skiing in the time left. We had some of the best turns of the day on black snow:

Day 2

No photos - Grand Sablat; Perrins S entry iciest I have ever experienced it

Day 3

Really quite bad. Les Deux Alpes. 1cm of snow on refrozen crap. High winds. Crowds. Only good thing was that it was the start of a storm...

Day 4

We didn't have high hopes, but it actually turned out pretty fun. About 10 cms of snow fell ovenight and snow fell all day. We decided Montfrais trees were the place to be and it turned out right. A nice day of mini-golf. Only one photo:

A snowHead

Day 5

The snow continued with high winds so we though La Grave might be worth a look (on the basis that it has trees and plenty of rock to give some definition in flat light). Well, the telepheriques were running but it took 2 frikken hours to get to the top, only to be blasted by 50mph winds. One run was enough for me. No photos; imagine the inside of a ping pong ball

Day 6

The snow turned into rain at high elevations and was accompanied by high winds. But the next day dawned "grand bleu" so we an attempt at a traverse of the Grandes Rousses was tempting. However, the winds were forecast to remain so we decided not to risk getting stuck waiting for the Pic Blanc cable car to open up and instead go touring. The Aiguillettes de Vaujany were the objective.

Weird snow after rainfall:

Just after skins on:

Steve and rain runnels:

A typical Vaujany dilemma: these look like really good lines, but there is so much other uncrowded stuff that is easier to get to...

Early stages of sunburn (bought that suncream in Utah and it SUCKED :cussing: )

We made it as far as the obvious col in this pic before deciding that it was getting a bit windloaded and skiing down was the best idea:

An artsy one:

First bit of the descent was getting off the windloaded area:

The obligatory point:

Paul on the first pitch:

Further down - those runnels were fine to ski on once they had turned to corn:

No tour is compete without some grassy slope gn@r:

This trip gave a great outlook on the skiing accessible from the Pic Blanc and the Dome des Rousses lifts. Hoodge:

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Day 7

Probably the highlight of the trip. A traverse of the Grandes Rousses with descents of the Pic Bayle and the Glacier du Cochette. I did this last year with a guide but this year did it without in probably more challenging conditions. Plus the entry to the Glacier du Cochette is rated as either D or TD- so I am quite please with that given that I am a desk jockey. Enough dick waving...

Skinning towards the Pic Bayle:

Coming off the back of Pic Bayle... I'd been tipped off that this needed either a 20ft abseil or a small jump in an area with high consequences for a fall. The new snow had filled it in so no jump necessary but this was still pretty steep and exposed:

Still, it was worth it:

Not sure that BC skiing gets much better than that:

A short skin followed up to the Col du Quirlies. Sorting stuff out at the col with the Mt Blanc massif in the background:

There followed a few 100m of uphill including a scramble along a ridge. Last year we had been able to side slip into this entry couloir, but this time round we needed to downclimb. I was glad to have crampons and ice axe with me:

Skis on and a bit of sideslipping and we got to ski this:

After that it opened onto the glacier and the skiing got a bit more mellow:

It was pretty late so we got through the Col du Couard ASAP then surfed around on wet snow down to the end of the run. Relaxing just after the exposed slopes of the col:

kind of like water skiing:

We'd missed the last lift from La Villette back to Vaujany so we had to walk back down with the lifties

Col du Couard in the evening sun:

Day 8

Pretty nackered after day 7's exertions, we still picked off the lazy entrance to the Cerisier. Probably the steepest thing we skied all week

There followed an afternoon of mellow skiing followed by a few beers and a happy couple of hours watching England beat the Irish at rugby and marvelling at the hawt barmaid in Arsen's pub in Vaujany. Except Paul who felt it necessary to do laps of the Fare piste in order to get good value on his lift ticket

Day 9

Only had the morning before heading home, we bought a morning ticket for the Vaujany area. About 20cms of new snow had fallen overnight and was still falling. We just did laps of the second stage of the Dome des Rousses cable car doing variations of the l'Angelin off piste run. As usual, not much competition for tracks.

Steve in a little chute we found:

Paul

Me sl@ying low angle pow:

That's all folks!

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Great TR, thanks dude.

I like this one. Does he have Mr Whippy poles:

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

he was debating putting his hand in his pocket for some new poles..

You'll need to Register first of course.

Arno, Great pix and great report. I'm glad you had such a good time.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Arno, Quality stuff

Traverse of the Grand Rousses looks superb

Thats the money shot

After all it is free

Wow.

Great read over breakfast. Thanks.

cool, sounds like a pretty tricky week in terms of changing conditions. The black snow looks scary .... btw what is black snow and what is D & TD-

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Really awesome stuff..... Shocked

I always think that ADH have big descents, but you really open my eyes... What a nice place the Oisans with the "trilogy" ADH-LDA-LG Shocked

Now I finally have touring (or with touring possibility...aka Duke) bindings, so traverse des Grandes Rousses, or Pyramid are either ok....

As you said the photo of the descent the first part of traverse is like heli marketing photos in magazines Very Happy

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

plectrum, black snow was just old snow with lots of rock dust mixed in. D and TD- are difficulty ratings - D=difficile; TD=tres difficile

snow reports

Arno You inspire me, truely magazine quality photos, as for the location, I'm lost for words.

Epic trip, & great photos. My fear factor adrenalin is up just from the pics! plectrum, thanks for asking the questions - I was wondering too.

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TR: My holidays in Oisans (with lots of big pics)

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