In reply to Simon4:
> skied up the Pic de l'Etandard.
Yes we saw lots of people doing that. Great thing about the Etendard is that you can view and recognized it from all over the northern French Alps (so then Pic Bayle is seen as "that boring summit just left of Etendard).
I said to my partner that the problem with starting from the Refuge de l'Etendard in late spring conditions is that you take the descent too _early_, so you ski down on frozen ice ruts. I did it car-to-car in a single day from St Sorlin, so I avoided that problem.
I also said that I would not do Etendard from the N / NE again, because most of the sections which are not ski-pistes, are long + gentle + boring. He said he also avoids doing the tedious Normal route, prefers the West ridge for climbing Etendard.
> You climbed the Aiguille d'Arves?
Not so far - (but those dramatic peaks are inviting).
Are there some interesting easy scrambling routes on them?
. . . (even better: a ridge traverse)
. . . ("easy" as in no non-Aid-able moves harder than euro 4b? No abseils more than 16 meters?)
I have _skied_ the Col des Aiguilles d'Arves from the East - (Not as good as people said). On that side for skiing, I prefer the S / SE face of the Aiguille d'Epaisseur.
Ken
Post edited at 12:41