Chazelet is a tiny but beautiful little ski resort with south facing slopes across the valley from the La Grave lift. It has five lifts, five pistes, and one very nice mountain restaurant. A reasonable skier will exhaust the on-piste possibilities in a morning, but the off-piste can be great on the right day and…
The Aiguilles Rouges route from La Toura is one of the two classic descents from Les Deux Alpes to St. Christoph, the other being the Vallon de la Selle. Like the Selle, the run is mostly south facing, so it can be a fantastic descent in spring conditions. The normal route descends through a choice…
At the moment I am working through the International Mountain Leader (IML) award. Part of this means logging mountain walking days outside the UK, so it seems like a good idea to post some route descriptions of the better routes here for others to follow, and in anticipation of being qualified to lead these walks…
The Col de Laurichard from the north east is deservedly one of the most popular ski tours in the Combynot nature reserve. Like several routes on this site it starts from the Col du Lautaret giving you the advantage of being able to start at over 2000 metres. The Combeynot range is always popular with…
The Couloir de l’Ours in La Grave is one that I had often looked up at whilst skiing one of the common variations of the classic Vallons de la Meije in La Grave, both with friends and with clients. My favoured version of the classic route follows a scenic little valley between moraine ridges which…
One of the classic Alpine road biking cols in the summer, the Col du Galibier makes for wonderful ski touring in good spring conditions when approached from the south. The route starts on the Briancon side of the Col du Lautaret and takes a much more direct line than the summer road’s sweeping ziz-zags.On the…
The Vallon de la Selle is one of the classic routes from Les Deux Alpes or La Grave to the village of St Christoph in the Veneon Valley. Despite the start point at nearly 3600m and the high-mountain terrain it crosses the route is entirely non-glacial, so there is no risk of crevasses or serac…
Although now based in the Alps, I did start my skiing career in Scotland. It is easy to overlook the fact that there is some great skiing in Scotland, both lift served and in the Scottish backcountry. There are some legendary pistes whose names evoke some of my earliest skiing memories – Cairngorm’s White Lady,…
Just to the south of the Col du Lautaret, the Combeynot range offers a range of interesting ski tours of differing lengths and difficulties. The high starting point (2057m) at the Lautaret means that it is possible to ski back to the road on north facing slopes, even late in the season. On Wednesday (27th…
