Mini TR - Grand Sablat 26th Jan 2012

A snowHead

Last week was our annual 'Lads Trip' to Oz (Alpe D'Huez) involving 18 blokes of mixed age, skiing and drinking abilities. Amongst the various entertainments was a trip down the Grand Sablat glacier last Thursday which happened to coincide with some fairly horrendous hangovers exacerbated by a bottle of Absynthe the previous evening. Embarassed

Our group comprised 8 skiers of decent standard, all with a bit of OP experience, our guide Quentin and 'bodyguard' A.P. (director of Oz ESF and a good friend). The Bureau Des Guides are the only people sanctioned to guide on this glaciated terrain and to call in the heli pick-up.

We skiied over to ADH Bureau Des Guides to meet Quentin and from there rode the lifts up to Pic Blanc where we made an 'interesting' narrow icy traverse over to the back of the lift station and under the rope into the bowl at the top of the glacier where conditions were firm with a bit of wind blown snow and a few stones here and there.

Having skiied our first few turns at “50%” as directed we soon dropped into the sunshine and at least a metre of powder for some fresh tracks in the bowl. Unfortunately the snow was extremely changeable with breakable crust causing a few face plants so hero snow was interspersed with some “back seat survival skiing” until we reached the long traverse.

A couple of locals were descending the Couloir des Pioches which starts steep and narrow accessed from above the Sarenne piste and joins the glacier after a fairly serious cliff band.

After a short tea stop we continued down towards Clavans, just spotting the Refuge De Sarenne at the end of the Combe Du Loup as we dropped down into pasture land and heavier spring-like snow conditions in the late morning sunshine.

The skiing is generally quite easy on this trip if conditions are decent, later in the season the snow transforms rapidly at which times the full descent to Clavans Le Haut isn’t always possible and the heli pick up happens at the end of the glacier.

We were able to ski down through the meadows and a long icy road and some back gardens before arriving at the village to find 20 odd people already waiting for the heli ride back to ADH. The helicopter was off at Les 2 Alpes on a job so after a quick call the owner of the auberge in Clavans arrived in his knackered minibus, dumped our skis inside and drove us 10 minutes to his lovely little place for an excellent lunch in the sunshine.

After lunch we were again dropped off at Clavans Le Haut where Quentin called in the heli to take us on a short ride high over the Sarenne valley back to the altiport and the queues and pistes of ADH. A great day enjoyed by one and all, can be arranged at the ESF chalet in Oz (and possibly others) or ask at the Bureau Des Guides at the bottom of the DMC lift in ADH.

Thanks to A.P. for the photos and for his amazing rugby tackle of my runaway ski which was heading for a cliff edge after I got a little bit too “aggressive in the turn” at one point!

A snowHead

always a nice day out Cool

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Mini TR - Grand Sablat 26th Jan 2012

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