Five days of freeride ski touring with Nico in the Hautes-Alpes: Serre-Chevalier, Puy-Saint-Vincent, a Montbrison traverse and fresh tracks at col du Bal.
This week, my mate Nico — a mountain guide and proud owner of an impressive beard — asks me to work alongside him. Always up for a bit of skiing in the mountains, I happily accept! Our gruelling job will consist of guiding a group of skiers — most of them from the far south of France — on a freerando course...
This relatively new term refers to an increasingly popular way of skiing: somewhere between off-piste skiing and ski touring. You make the most of the lifts, then put on your skins to venture further away from the resort and reach places regular piste skiers simply can't get to... The possibilities are huge, and the uphill-to-downhill ratio is often hard to beat!
There's no fixed programme for the week. We'll make it up as we go along, depending on what everyone wants to do and what's possible... all under the watchful eye of Mother Nature, of course, who seems determined to provide us with a constantly changing backdrop!!
Day 1: Puy-Saint-Vincent, almost sheltered from the storm
On paper, the forecast for our first day isn't particularly inviting: storm-force winds and rain up to 2,000 metres in the morning — the kind of day when looking too closely at the forecast can quickly lead to spending the day at the bar instead.
We decide not to start too early and let the worst of the storm pass. Then we head towards Vallouise, hoping to find some shelter from the bad weather raging over L'Alpe once again. As we'll soon discover, with a westerly wind Puy-Saint-Vincent is certainly more sheltered than Serre Chevalier... but not so sheltered that you can pee into the wind without consequences!
The aim for this first day is simply to get to know the group. We all ski together... The upper part of the resort is closed because of the wind, but our skins allow us to reach the Narreyroux off-piste area.
The wind has pushed the little fresh snow that fell into the more sheltered spots. The skiing is still quite technical, but much better than we'd expected! And in any case, we have this beautiful off-piste descent entirely to ourselves today... with none other than the sun making a surprise appearance!
We celebrate our first run with a well-earned break to sample the best burgers in the resort.
This afternoon, we head over towards Oréac. With part of the group, we drop down the south face for a short but excellent 200-metre run... which, of course, we'll then have to climb back up! All that effort just for a few turns — that's what skiing is all about...
End of the day, skiing back down through Tournoux...
Day 2: A quick tour of Serre Chevalier
Today's forecast promises lighter winds — we'll happily take that! We decide to try our luck in Serre Chevalier, starting from Chantemerle. Around ten centimetres of fresh snow make our first few runs along the edges of the pistes particularly enjoyable!
We then leave the lifts behind for a beautiful off-piste descent on the south-facing slopes... It starts in a wide-open valley before finishing in the trees. A half-hour skin back up takes us to the resort again.
After the break, we set off to explore the Prorel... by skinning up towards the summit! The ski area is all around us, never very far away,
Day 3: Crossing Mont Brison via La Condamine and La Lauzière
Blue skies are forecast today, with no wind: a perfect invitation to head into the mountains... Without straying too far from this week's freerando theme, today a small group of us are setting off on something closer to a proper ski tour — although the Serre Chevalier lifts give us a serious head start!
Three lifts later, we reach the top of Eychauda, where we leave the resort behind for a long day in the mountains. It's always nice to start a ski tour with a descent — especially when it's a good one!
We put on our skins and head towards La Condamine via the Groselière ridge. The climb is interrupted by a short descent, allowing us to avoid a rather awkward traverse. Once we reach the broad ridge leading towards La Condamine, we put on our crampons for a little extra safety: it's getting a bit too steep to stay on skis, with plenty of exposure below!
At the summit, a light but chilly wind encourages us not to hang around for too long. I'd spotted a possible descent on the Vallouise side. After a quick solo reconnaissance, the verdict is in: we're going that way!
And here we are, skiing some beautiful steep slopes, with great snow and not another track in sight... Not a bad start!
Admittedly, this little variation adds another 300 metres of climbing to our day, but we're here to ski, after all, and we certainly don't regret our run down this wild slope!! We skin back up through a crusty couloir to the Col de Vallouise. From there, we head straight towards our second and final summit of the day, La Lauzière...
It's 3 p.m., we've already climbed a fair amount and, thanks to a sadistic guide, our stomachs are still empty. Time for a break.
The descent from La Lauzière takes us into a magnificent, steep-sided valley surrounded by cliffs that wouldn't look out of place in the Dolomites. At the top, wind-blown powder has collected in the hollows, giving us some fantastic skiing... Then, as the valley turns east, things get even better!
The powder gets lighter and lighter until we find ourselves skiing through 20 centimetres of beautiful light snow on a soft base. Absolutely incredible
Day 4: Freerando in Serre Che
After yesterday's big day and all the great surprises under our skis, it's tempting to head straight back into the mountains — especially since I couldn't help spotting a few promising lines I'd like to ski around Montbrison!
But today we have to deal with less favourable weather, with heavy snow expected by midday... not exactly ideal for a big day out in the mountains.
So for now, we'll stick to some freerando closer to home.
First, we head up towards the Tête des Grands for around 1,200 vertical metres of off-piste skiing away from the crowds, with a slightly challenging final section — thankfully, not a very long one!
We can see the bad weather rolling in right before our eyes... but there's still just enough time for one last south-facing descent above Les Partias. We take it nice and easy as the visibility gradually disappears!
Getting back from Les Combes to the ski area takes us about half an hour... and that's enough for today! We're already keeping a close eye on tomorrow's snow forecast, because things are starting to look promisingly powdery!
Day 5: First Tracks and Last Runs in Puy-Saint-Vincent
Choosing today's destination has Nico and me scratching our heads! We'd really like to make the most of last night's fresh snow while staying out of the wind — yes, the wind again, grrr! — and finding something with the right amount of climbing for everyone.
I head over to Puy-Saint-Vincent to see what's opening. Apparently, everything is! Perfect, let's go!
And here we all are, heading for the summit of Pendine, which we reach after a quick 15-minute climb with our skis strapped to our packs.
We drop towards the Col du Bal, one of Puy-Saint-Vincent's classic off-piste descents. And today, we have the immense privilege of being the first ones in, with absolutely perfect conditions!
That was good... so let's go for another lap!
Part of the team then heads back up towards the Col des Queyrettes, while the rest of the group decides that sitting in the sunshine with a beer deserves some further investigation!
Hard to imagine a better way to finish the week on a high!
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