Freeride touring in the Queyras: from Châteaurenard to Combe du Vel, three climbs and plenty of five-star powder skiing with a Pyrenean crew!
For three days, Sylvain and I are guiding a colourful crew from the Pyrenees deep into the Queyras! The basic idea is simple: good skiing, not too much climbing if possible, and above all, plenty of descending... That should be doable!
Since there’s no heliskiing base in Molines-en-Queyras, the best option is to play around with everything the local ski resorts have to offer—and there are plenty of possibilities!
Our original group has shrunk a little in the days leading up to the trip. In the end, our five artists will be thoroughly spoiled by two guides. A guide-to-client ratio that opens up plenty of possibilities, especially given how good these guys are on skis!
To kick off our three days, we leave Molines and head towards the Pic de Châteaurenard, reached after a short skin to warm up. Some bodies that are usually pretty quick on the way down seem to be struggling slightly more on the way up! Fortunately, the uphill section doesn’t last long and we’re soon back on terrain that suits everyone: downhill! Next stop, the Chapelle de Clausis!
The euphoria doesn’t last long. These sadistic guides have planned a second session of uphill torture to reach the Pic de Cornivier. It’s all about pacing yourself!
From the Pic de Cornivier, we’re faced with a terrible decision. The untracked bowl on the right? The untracked couloir in the middle? Oh well, let’s go for the couloir!
Below the couloir, the pack is unleashed into huge fields of beautifully preserved powder, even after ten days without any fresh snow!
After a couple of whispered discussions with Sylvain, we suggest a third skinning session to the team, which should take us to a potentially untouched bowl. Despite the deteriorating state of certain muscle fibres, the vote is unanimously in favour, and off we go again for another half-hour climb—just enough to finish cooking those thighs!
And it was well worth the effort! The Combe du Vel is completely untouched! Nothing like the Vallon de Clausis we’ve just left behind, which is a little too tracked out for our liking. The transition between the two valleys is through a short couloir that quickly opens onto huge powder fields. The setting is superb!
Five-star skiing all the way to the bottom! A very good sign for what’s to come!
We would like to apologise to any participants who may feel slightly cheated by the transformation of the “500m maximum climbing” agreement into 877m! We’ll try to average things out over the next couple of days!
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