Off piste powder heaven at Le Tour

I had a nightmare last night. I dreamt I was drowning. I had probably stolen all the duvet, as usual, and was suffocating in down, but I decided that today I didn’t want to do a ski tour under very avalanche prone slopes. Instead we went to Le Tour for some relatively safer off-piste adventure.

I had set the alarm early – the forecast was for more snow in the afternoon, so I wanted to take advantage of the best part of the day – and we caught the bus to Le Tour.

It was bitterly cold first thing on the chair lift, but a warm up in the undisturbed powder on the unpisted slopes back down Charamillon got the circulation going. We made our way back to the top of the lift system and headed for off piste powder heaven.

At the top of the highest chair lift, you start down towards Valorcine but almost immediately cut right and head under the ropes. If you continue to traverse right there are quite a few exciting lines down steep slopes, through gullies and eventually through trees and back to the chair lift. The fresh powder was absolutely brilliant.

We had so much fun, and it’s fantastic that the chair lift can just take you back to the beginning. Up and down and up and down we went.

We weren’t complacent though. This area can be prone to the occasional avalanche, so we took care of where we were going and of course carried our avalanche kit.

Before we got too tired we decided to end the day with a final fast run back down the red piste to Le Tour. A great day out.

Series - Chamonix 2011

1. Deep powder at Planpraz
2. Off piste powder heaven at Le Tour
3. Crochues-Berard traverse
4. Frendo-Ravanel