 Poster: A snowHead
|
The idea is a 2 week road trip in the SW Valais. We pretty well have the 1st week covered but will head west to the Grand St Bernard Pass
for a few days.
The idea is to visit Verbier for a day..or maybe two via Nendaz probably, then move on to the Pass.
It is an area that we have travelled through a lot and always wanted to look around so this year we will try and do that.
Our main interest would be the route down into Italy from Grd St B and if there are any other routes that we can check out, then feel free to advise..
It doesn't matter where we will stay as we will be mobile, more interested in the skiing available. The idea is self-sufficent off-piste day routes or intineraires
TIA
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
Hi.
I was in the Gr St Bernard region in 2006 (April) for ski touring. Great terrain, both off-piste as well as for full day ski touring. However, we did not ski the Italy route since snow was lacking down in the valley (the slopes down to Italy are south-facing). The usual route is quite obvious and more or less like a piste (i.e. tracked out by many skiers), however further down there may be some walking/hiking necessary depending on the snowpack (I do have this information from some friends of mine who did the route in 2008).
Off piste is to be found in the vicinity of the lifts:
1) Just under the cable car (skiers right, some nice couloirs lower down to the parking slot)
2) In the vicinity of the standard piste (tracked out very soon)
3) Going over the ridge (via the tunnel) to the bowl behind the ridge skiers right of the cable car. There is also a groomed piste (black, if I remember correctly) but the bowl is quite large and there is plenty of space. This approach also opens some short touring opportunities up to the ridge defining the Swiss-Italy border (Combe de Barrason). There is also the possibility to ski down to the Italian side (various routes, one to Etroubles, one to the southers portal of the road tunnel).
Touring:
Tons of opportunities. We stayed for 3.5 days and we got only a first glimpse on all the opportunities. There are of course also some high alpine ski touring options (i.e. Mt. Velant etc.).
We did the following (we stayed in Bourge St. Pierre) :
1) Mini-tour (this was in the afternoon after arriving at the first day): Hospice St. Bernard, extremely flat but the Hospice is interesting in itself
2) Barrason, short tour which can be even more shortened when using the cable car (see above)
3) Mt. Teilleirs, starting at the parking slot, we had bad weather but some of the upper slopes seemed to be nice if snow/visibility is good
4) Chaux de Forgnon, starting at the dam of the hydroelectric power plant. Steep slopes first (ca. 250 m vertical) than mellower but fine terrain. Some possibilites to find steeper slopes at the mountains around the huge bowl.
As I said there are tons of more options. Good info / overview is to be found in the ski map (carte de randonnees a ski): Martigny, 282 S (Carte nationale de la suisse - avec itineraires de ski, 1: 50.000, office federal de topographie, swisstopo)
Further down the valley there is a nice, little ski resort (friends of mine visited this resort and they were quite enthusiastic about the off-piste there): Liddes-Vicheres.
Feel free to ask if you have further questions.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
|
RandyAlp, That is the type of thing I am looking for... many thanks
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ