© Lorne Cameron
© Graham Pinkerton
© Graham Pinkerton
© Lorne Cameron
© Lorne Cameron
© Graham Pinkerton
Mixed snow conditions in the Aiguilles Rouges this week
Ski touring at the Col de la Floria and Glacier du Mort
The February holidays are upon us, so it's going to take a little more effort to find good untouched snow for the next few weeks, especially with not much snowfall forecast around Chamonix.
Graham had an unexpected day off work on Wednesday and we fancied some ski touring to get away from the resort crowds a little. We had considered driving to the Aravis or Chablais but in the end stuck close to home for a free day out in the Aiguilles Rouges linking two classic Chamonix touring routes: the Col de la Floria and Glacier du Mort. We got just about every type of snow throughout the day but the good sections definitely made it worthwhile and it was nice to get a good bit of vertical done.
Living near the base of Brevent, I almost always take the Brevent gondola up then cross to Flegere for our tours which start from the Flegere lifts in order to avoid the Flegere cablecar's notoriously early morning lift queue. So from 08:50 first lifts we were up, across on perfect pistes to the Liason cablecar, then up the Index by about 09:30 to start our first ascent of the day. A few others were setting up their gear when we arrived, but with a quick setup, we started uphill before them and knocked out the ascent straight up from Index to the Col de la Floria in about 45 minutes; about two-thirds skinning then one-third easy boot-packing on good tracks.
Over the col to the north side the descent starts with a wide couloir somewhere between 40-45 degrees in pitch were the snow was a bit grabbier than ideal but it felt nice and safe at least. Once the couloir opened up into the mellow bowl below there was a lot of space to find untouched snow, even if it was a little variable; soft and powdery in places, firm wind or heat-affected snow in others. So we had to hold back a little bit but it was nice and cruisey anyway.
From this descent the main exit routes are the Keyhole (Breche de Berard), Col de Berard or Glacier du Mort. We had originally planned to ascend directly up the Mort access couloir but with the snow warming very fast we ended up skinning to halfway along the Col de Berard skintrack before climbing north up to the top of the couloir on safer shaded snow with just the final steep section proving a little tricky. From there it was just a short boot-pack further to the top of Glacier du Mort then time to ski.
On the main NE-facing Mort descent the snow was again a bit firm and grabby, which was quite frustrating, but luckily I know a little NW facing variation from past years which I thought was worth a look. To our surprise no-one had skied this whole section yet and after a cautious entry to test the snow we enjoyed couple of hundred metres of lovely untouched soft/sugary snow all to ourselves before joining the main Col de Berard descent route.
On the main route the snow was soft but pretty tracked (to be expected, being the single most popular route in the Aiguilles Rouges) but still skiing pretty well especially on the mellow meadowy section lower down were it was easy to pick out untouched pockets of soft to make each turn.
The Berard Valley exit track is in pretty much as good condition at the moment as I've ever seen it, with just one stream crossing to negotiate (an easy skis-on hop or step especially if you're over 6ft tall), not much poling required near the end and barely any rocks scraped. We arrived in Le Buet in perfect time (ie. 40 minutes before the train was due to arrive) for beers outside on the deckchairs; a classic end to a classic day.
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NB: Off piste skiing and mountaineering are dangerous. The opinions expressed in these articles are very much time and condition specific and the content is not intended in any way to be a substitute for hiring a mountain guide, undergoing professional mountaineering training and/or the individual's own back country decision making.
