UKC

Hi All
We got on Tuesday from our annual touring trip, we chose the Vanoise Haute Route in the National Park and were blown away by how great a ski touring area it is. Lovely terrain, spectacular views, summits at all grades, nice huts and the descent under the N face of the Grande Casse is epic.

Thought you might like to see the vid vimeo.com/125082953

Cheers

Sam

In reply to sam1971:

That looks like a great trip (envious).

In reply to sam1971:

Great vid - we were in the Otztal and Silvretta at about the same time and had gradually better and better weather as the week went on, beginning with temperatures cold enough to freeze the water in our plastic bottles buried deep inside our sacks. Plus massive wind chill.
Would be interested to know which route you took as most of the Vanoise HR itineraries I've looked at on guides websites don't seem to get to any summits and just pass through cols, which is no fun....

In reply to sam1971:

I have just got down a few hours ago.. Agree it is a great area...... Sadly you got the decent snow! This week, and the last, the wall to wall sunshine which was great for views as far as the eye could see, left loads of crust and soft mush for us! There were odd bits of nice spring snow but too often conditions did little to flatter one's skiing! We finished in Val d'Isere and it was raining.
Refuge we La Femma was our favourite.
Time to put these particular toys away for another year.

In reply to earlsdonwhu:

We did more or less the classic route (sometimes called la Poulé) and every day you have a variety of summit options. They vary from easily accesible with no extra time needed (Observatoire & Chasseforet for ex), through ridge climbs (Pointe de Labby etc), to a full extension to the day (Grand Casse & Dent Parrachee as best example).

In reply to sam1971:
Great, thanks loads. Will definitely have that one on the 'to do' list for next year.

In reply to sam1971:

Thanks for posting , nice video, already on the list but now moved a little higher .