TR: Tour de Vouteret

A snowHead

Exactly six months after my ski touring season started on the Dent de Crolles today may be the last outing of the season. The French call it a "hold-up", a long tour grabbed despite circumstances. With the RN91 closed beyond Grenoble this morning for blasting - some 800kg of high explosive were detonated during the night to clear the mountains above the ruines de Séchilienne we wouldn't be able to go to the high Glandon or Galibier passes today. So it was the Haute Breda valley.

We set off from the carpark at 6h30, no need for an early start as the temperatures are chilly at the moment. The north face of the Belle Etoile was deep frozen, despite the sunshine and needed careful going, climbing with ski crampons for the last 200 meters. As Luke said, a slip although unlikely to kill you would be very painful.

We'd hoped the south couloir would be good skiing but the sun had only begun to soften the slope at 10am and it was pretty hard.

On the climb up to the col du Vouteret we were greeted by a family of Chamois gambling in the snow. Here are the 5 babies. Mum and Dad have already crossed onto high ground but their kids seem a bit unsure. The top of the col has a large, south facing corniche, witness to the strong north winds that have blown all winter.

The Vouteret couloir was perfect, snow just right.

and unexpectedly good skiing at 2000m on the 11 of June. 1400 meters of skiing with only 140m of portage

When we got back to the car there was a naked guy out hiking - maybe that bloke who trekked across England. Luke said it wasn't normal to see naked people hill walking. Lower down there were some 200 longboarders descending the mountain roads at speeds up to 80km/h (we were told).

A snowHead

davidof,

Amazing, Thank you for posting details of your day out! snowHead

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

Thanks for another super report.
OT - I heard on the radio (BBC WS) a couple of days ago that the naked rambler is going to do the LE JOG again !! He must like the inside of rural police cells.