Les Grands Montets Backcountry

Some of the world's best backcountry terrain is to be found in Chamonix, especially high up on the glaciers accessed from the Aiguille du Midi and Grands Montets cable cars (Argentiere). These offer kilometres of high mountain powder with even more if you like to hike for fresh lines. There are several excellent guidebooks with descriptions of the many possible routes both within and beyond the lift areas. There are two published by Vamos called Mont-Blanc Ski tours (ISBN 2910672085) and Chamonix Hors pistes-Off piste (ISBN 2910672107); these books are bilingual, in English and French. An even more extensive guidebook with more difficult routes is Mont-Blanc et Aiguilles Rouges à ski (ISBN 2960025520), written by Anselme Baud and published by Nevicata; it’s only available in French but is worth struggling through even if your French isn’t so good as it gives very accurate descriptions and has good explanatory photos. But remember, in the backcountry there are many dangers not least from crevasses, seracs, cliffs and avalanches so you should always hire a mountain guide.

If hiking isn’t your thing but you love powder then heli-skiing/boarding could be for you. Whilst helicopter drop-offs of this nature are illegal in France (as you land on National park), Chamonix is well located with plenty of companies offering heli-drops on the Mont-Blanc massif just over the border in either Switzerland or Italy. For backcountry skiing and snowboarding from Grands Montets it is strongly recommended that you use the services of a local mountain guide unless somebody in your party is local to the area and knows the country really well. You need somebody who knows their mountaineering because it’s all on glacier and the route finding can be complex. Some of the more popular routes are the Pas de Chevre and Col du Passon. The Pas de Chevre has a few variations in route and difficulty. We recently hired a local Chamonix mountain guide to show us round the Rectaline couloir variant.

Views over Argentiere Glacier	Our trusty guide!	Zigzagging our way up to the Col du Passon	Steep sections!	Large powder fields

Route 1 : Rectaline Couloir This route starts at the top of Grands Montets and heads towards the infamous Mer de Glace below the spectacular Aiguille du Dru. It starts gently enough with an open powder field but soon rolls overit is into a steep and narrow couloir. The top can apparently be quite rocky, sometimes requiring an abseil, but we were lucky with the snow and side slipped into the top without too much drama. Some fresh snow had fallen recently and our group was fortunate enough to get fresh tracks down the couloir. It is steep – we would reckon a 45 degrees slope at the top then, 40 degrees for the rest – and the snow was unstable and sloughing as we rode down. There were a few spots at the sides where we could stop to let the sloughs past before we finally rested at the bottom in the shelter of a rock.
It’s a route that wouldn’t look out of place in a ski or snowboard movie, except we were taking it a little less quickly than the pros! Once out of the couloir you are onto a glacier and into open powder fields at a much gentler pitch. You have to keep your eyes open for crevasses and then before you know it you’re off the glacier and not far above the Mer de Glace. Next comes the tricky part, finding the exit couloir to get across the Mer de Glace. That’s where knowledge of our mountain guide proved invaluable as he was able to guide us safely through the crevasses and took us right there. (If you go wrong at this stage you’ll find yourself on top of some very large cliffs wondering if you’ll ever get home.) There’s a short walk back up the other side of the glacier before the descent through the trees on a narrow path back down to Chamonix (snow conditions permitting) or via the Montenvers funicular down to town.

Route 2 : Col du Passon The Col du Passon is more of a ski-touring route than the Pas de Chevre as it involves a 2–3 hour hike. It starts at the top of Grands Montets but heads in the opposite direction to the Pas de Chevre down onto the Argentiere glacier, before heading up over the Col du Passon then down to Le Tour. Our mountain guide took us through the powder fields skier’s right of the Point de Vue piste leading us safely between the crevasses until we were at the side of the Argentiere glacier. From there we started the long hike (– roped up and wearing snowshoes) to cross the glacier.
We had set off early in the morning as the slopes we were climbing warm up rapidly in the sun and so are prone to sliding. We zigzagged our way up for a couple of hours until we reached the bottom of the couloir to the col. At this point the steepness meant we had to use crampons: if you’ve never used them before they give you a feeling of safety that’s hard to beat as the spikes dig into even the iciest snow. A few minutes later and we were all at the top, with the Le Tour glacier and open fields of fresh powder waiting for us below. However, we took a well deserved break and stopped for lunch.

From this point there are several possible routes down but our guide took us on one to the skier’s left. The top section started fairly mildly but soon rolled over into a pitch that was just about perfect for pulling fast powder turns. It was a long powdery descent with lots of room to manoeuvre high above the tree line. It wasn’t long before we started a long traverse skier’s left into some open trees and then the final, quite picky and steep descent through the bushes to Le Tour. The final section was probably the trickiest of the whole day and looking back up the slope it was possible to see plenty of very steep sections and cliffs where things would have gone badly wrong without the knowledge of our local guide… who knows what could have happened had we taken the wrong turn!