© Graham Pinkerton
© Lorne Cameron
© Lorne Cameron
© Graham Pinkerton
© Lorne Cameron
© Lorne Cameron
© Lorne Cameron
Skiing Helbronner & Courmayeur
Excellent snow off piste in Helbronner/Courmayeur earlier this week
Italy got a bit more of a top up of snow than the French side of Mont Blanc last weekend so on Monday I headed through the Mont Blanc Tunnel with Graham with hopes of finding some decent fresh snow to ski.
Expectations were fairly low to be honest, but it turned out to be one of my best ski days of the winter so far. We were greeted by blue skies as we exited the Italian side of the tunnel, so after parking at Val Veny (€3 pay-and-display tickets since last year) we headed over to the Mont Blanc Skyway lift to check out the Toule Glacier from the top lift station on Pointe Helbronner, my first time up there since the lift's renovation last year.
The lift is included on Mont Blanc Unlimited passes but activation is required for at the Skyway ticket desk even if the pass has already been activated for Courmayeur's resort lifts. With no lift queue it was a pretty relaxed affair, and the new lifts got us to the top of the mountain quicker than the old three-stage lift, with the rotating cabin providing good views for everyone.
The terrain off each stage of the lift is all off piste and un-patrolled, and the top lift accesses glaciated slopes. As such, it should be treated like any other glaciated area, with avalanche safety and crevasse rescue equipment mandatory, plus the necessary knowledge to use it, suitable ski experience and/or the accompaniment of a mountain guide.
From the top station we walked and sidestepped around to the metal steps accessing the Toule Glacier; around 200 steep downhill steps built onto the mountain to bypass what is now an un-skiable slope at most times of the year. The 60 degree ladders at the end of the steps have grown even longer in recent years, making things a little trickier but we got down fine while hand-holding our skis but many people would be more comfortable with skis-on-backpacks for the steps and ladders.
Access complete, it was time to ski. We decided to stick to the right as we descended, hoping that the shade from the rock walls would be keeping some nice cold, dry powder for us, and indeed it did. I hadn't expected 40-50cm powder at all so hadn't even brought my fattest skis but the skiing was still excellent with plenty of untouched stashes of snow to find and many a powder faceshot on the way down.
Lower down towards midstation the snow got heavier and stickier, so with things warming up fast up high also, we decided that one good run was enough and headed down the lift to try our luck on some shaded slopes around Courmayeur's resort lifts.
We had one area in mind: the Youla and Arp top lifts. After cruising over from the top of the Val Veny cable car on excellent soft pistes without too much holiday traffic we had a pretty short wait for the Youla lift (a tiny cablecar only holding about 25 people) and then walked straight onto the Arp to the top of the mountain (an even smaller lift). The terrain from the Arp isn't glaciated but is still completely off piste and un-patrolled so avalanche safety equipment, skills & knowledge and/or the services of a mountain guide are again mandatory here.
After traversing and sidestepping through Col de Youla we fancied exploring a little further than usual, so made another traverse and fairly long sidestep up and over Mont Favre's north ridge to find some nice mellow terrain holding excellent boot-top powder with some ski tracks but by no means tracked-out.
The skiing was pretty relaxed but we still found a few banks and rolls to play on, and the snow stayed excellent all the way down to the road at the valley floor. The exit road is a good 2km long back to the Zerotta chairlift, gently sloping for the first half and then dead flat, but with excellent cold snow and freshly waxed skis it was the easiest exit I've ever had here.
With two very big laps bagged we were ready to head home, but not before some fine Italian cappuccinos outside in the sun at the top of the Zerotta of course. We took the Val Veny trees home which were excellent at the top but very quickly the snow turned heavy and sticky, so the second half was real survival skiing. Still, it beat taking the piste or lift down!
Follow more from Lorne in his ski blog.
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.
