UKC

Hiya- I'm out in Chamonix over New Years but the piste conditions look a bit rubbish due to lack of snow so I was thinking of doing some touring instead; can anyone recommend any day tours in the area that would be good for someone competent but not expert? I'm an alright piste skier but relatively new to ski touring, having only done a couple of days touring in Scotland before. I'm happy on glaciers etc as have done a fair bit of summer climbing in the region.
Cheers

In reply to jamiewood:

No snow on piste means lots of open crevasses or worse, still, lots of flimsy snow bridges.

Wait until later on in the season perhaps?

In reply to jamiewood:

There is an english language guidebook to the touring published by Vamos. Lots to go at but as Tim says lack of snow may be an issue. Aiguille Rouge might be better as there are no real glaciers.

In reply to Tim Davies:
I've usually thought piste skiing was something for when touring wasn't possible

In reply to jamiewood:

Not a good time for being on Glaciers due to lack of snow. but have a look around on blogs and you will get both current conditions and what people have been up to as of late.

In reply to jamiewood:

As above; you need lots of snow to cover the crevasses as well as to allow you to get off the ends of your off-piste runs. Also the weather is better in March and April.

In reply to jamiewood:
New Year is normally too early for glacial touring anyway..... but quite a few non-glacial day tours in the area, especially if you are prepared to drive a bit. Crochues-Berard traverse is a classic of the valley, from the top of the Index lift, but have a look at the Quatre Tetes, the Rochers des Enclaves, Mont Jovet (need to drive a bit for these)........all done pretty frequently, check out http://www.camptocamp.org for details.

In reply to jamiewood:

You could try checking out the relevant page on the Alpine club site:

http://www.alpine-club.org.uk/funalps/?page_id=58

Clicking on the links leads you to c2c (see Chris Bedford's comment above) and the route description in English, with information on recent outings for that route, (usually in French.)

In reply to jamiewood:

Fantastic; thanks all for your advice. I'll have a look at all routes mentioned. I'm just hoping for some snow, somewhere...at the moment the number of pistes open seems to be going down by about one a day!

In reply to jamiewood:
Hiya,

It hasn't snowed here for weeks now, and even the early-season ski tours are starting to look pretty grim again, but touring is very possible indeed if you hate your bases and don't mind walking *long* sections of the egress.

The easier stuff in the Berard Valley (Col du Berard, Keyhole) is thin, but skiable, but the slightly harder routes (north side of the Col du Belvedere, the Alphonse Favre couloir) are completely out until there is A LOT more snow.

Sorry for the plug, but here are two short videos I made recently about tours in the Aiguilles Rouges, the final few seconds of each should be sufficiently indicative of the kind of thing you can expect...

South side of the Col du Belvedere
youtube.com/watch?v=yEKuzuWyhBI&

Mont Buet, Tre-les-eaux Glacier
youtube.com/watch?v=z94NxNWLVDA&


Now, I've not been up on the glaciers for months now, but there are pictures starting to come back from the first few groups exploring up there... and there are a lot of holes about. Even the relatively low-key stuff from the Grand Montets (Cols du Chardonnet, Argentiere, Tour Noire...) are going to be pretty f*cking terrifying for quite a long time, if we don't get some more snow soon. They'll definitely be doable, but they're probably going to have a more serious feel than they usually do, and I wouldn't be surprised if people are roped up from start to finish (rare, for those tours).

If you are "relatively new" to ski touring, perhaps the current conditions aren't the best to try and go out in!

Best of luck, whatever you end up doing.