Ski touring on Côte Belle in the Queyras with Bruno, Oliv’ and Damien: a beautiful day of careful route finding, snowy ridges and fresh powder.
Back from an ice climbing session in Chamonix and the Cogne Valley, I’m back on familiar ground in the Hautes-Alpes for a bit of ski touring. Today I’m with a cheerful crew from Provence: Bruno, Oliv’ and Damien.
We discuss where to go right up until the last minute. It looks like the Queyras has picked up some fresh snow from a recent retour d’Est. If powder is what we’re after, that’s where we need to point our skis. But we’ll also need to be particularly careful today. We opt for Côte Belle, with the Arpelin as a backup if the conditions look too worrying.
The tone is quickly set: plenty of jokes and banter! Quite a crew of characters. The hour-long approach along the cross-country ski trail flies by!
At the foot of Côte Belle, we spot six skiers coming down the route we’re planning to take. No precautions whatsoever on the descent — full-on kamikaze skiing! And the skin track cuts straight across all the slopes between the Arpelin and Côte Belle instead of sensibly keeping away from them. So we have to break a new trail for part of the climb.
Right from the start, we leave plenty of space between us. With a considerable avalanche risk today, the precautions are justified. There are few accumulations along our route. The snowpack is fairly uniform and sits on a hard base where we can still feel the old tracks underneath. But there’s still a significant amount of fresh snow: around 30cm.
Higher up, about a hundred metres below the col, the wind has hammered the snow, leaving it completely wind-packed and hard in places. We all regroup at the col for a short break. Just after we arrive, the view opens up over the Queyras and the Écrins! We even enjoy a few weak rays of sunshine... Not quite enough to warm us up, though. Luckily, appearing from who knows where, a small flask of Greek grappa saves us from freezing on the spot!
This little break is also a chance to see how everyone is doing. Apparently, there’s still some energy left in the tank. So off we go towards the summit, skis on our backs! We follow the elegant snowy ridge all the way up. Pure class. The atmosphere is magical!
We cautiously ski the first 100 metres on hard, completely wind-scoured snow. Then we find the fresh stuff again. At first, we ski in short sections for maximum safety — and also to give our thighs a break. The snow weighs down the tips and you really have to lean back to keep them afloat. It’s hard work, but the team is loving it in this beautiful untouched bowl!
As the icing on the birthday cake, we let Bruno lay down the first tracks all the way through the lower part of the descent, where the snow just keeps getting better and better. Insanely good!
Then we finish with a little powder session in the forest before rejoining the trail...
Job done, with a few beers to finish the day, as it should be! Thanks guys for such a great day of skiing.
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