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TR: Belle Etoile North Face
 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead

Looking out of my window it seemed to have snowed on Monday and the temperatures were a good deal colder. A Tuesday outing looked like a plan, but where to go? I was fed up with long approach marches so settled on the North Side of the Belle Etoile.... this would give 1000 meters of skiing with only 100 meters of climbing on foot.


The route

By driving up a green ski piste it was possible to reach around 1650 meters leaving only 20 minutes of level walk to reach the snowline


Chalet de Pra and the Oursiere Piste

The Combe de Pra is part of the Sept Laux's famous secured off-piste and also leads to the Dent de Pra.



The walk was pleasantly bucolic



There was a dusting of fresh snow from 2100m and around 5cm (of somewhat crusty) snow from 2400. This was on a hard base so climbing on skins was delecate as the slope reached 35 degrees.


Indianna Jones

The first 80 meters of descent is around 40 degrees angle, due to the sluffing of the surface snow I had to veer to the right then back to the left to avoid skiing over tumbling ice.



By following a ridge that had caught the sun I pretty much avoided the crusty snow (wind crust?).



and it was a very pleasant ski down



and by some careful route planning I eventually made it to 1750 meters - where I ran out of snow and didn't have water skis



the return to the ski resort was marked by cigarette butts, fag packets and old lift passes

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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person

Lovely little adventure. It almost sounds like something I could do! Almost.
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 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?

Do you normally get some ski-ing this late in the year? Looks like you weren't at very high altitude either...

(Nice pictures, btw, its raining here Sad )
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Sounds fantastic, just the sort of day out I would love, but what do the local authorities think about
Quote:

By driving up a green ski piste it was possible to reach around 1650 meters leaving only 20 minutes of level walk to reach the snowline

Was it a track?
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

looks great

Can you tell me more about this??

"The Combe de Pra is part of the Sept Laux's famous secured off-piste"

Do you mean secured as in patrolled a la the US of A "in/out of bounds"??

and why is it famous?

regards,

greg
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Martin Nicholas wrote:

Was it a track?


The piste is just in front of the fag packet. The piste patrol drive up in pick-ups to service the Oursiere chair lift although you can't get all the way in a car as there is a large drainage ditch.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

gregh wrote:
looks great

Can you tell me more about this??

"The Combe de Pra is part of the Sept Laux's famous secured off-piste"

Do you mean secured as in patrolled a la the US of A "in/out of bounds"??

and why is it famous?

regards,

greg


Hi Greg,

Yes they have quite a lot of secured outbounds skiing in this resort. The problem with the Pra is it is rarely officilally open although all the easily accessible slopes get patrolled - I wonder if this is a legal thing. I will have to ask the resort why this is.

Famous... well it appears in a lot of French mags - I will scan some pics and post them. Maybe I should have kept quiet about it?
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!

davidof wrote:
Maybe I should have kept quiet about it?


Too late Wink
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Looking out of my window early last Saturday it seemed to have been raining, and the temperatures were a good deal more non-descript. An outing looked like a plan, but where to go? A long approach march was a possibility, but it seemed more sensible to get in the car to get to.....ah yes.......100m of Dendix Crying or Very sad


B@$¬@%D!
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Ski the Net with snowHeads

GrahamN wrote:
Looking out of my window early last Saturday it seemed to have been raining, and the temperatures were a good deal more non-descript. An outing looked like a plan, but where to go? A long approach march was a possibility, but it seemed more sensible to get in the car to get to.....ah yes.......100m of Dendix :cry:


excellent post... can you imagine going to the Snowdome kitted out like some hardcore alpinist and then climbing up the slope? That would get them going. One for Jackass.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

davidof, Last November there was a guy trying out some skins at the castleford Xscape in full gear with a ruc sac on. the local news program were filming him but I never found out what it was for.
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