The Spring Hut to Hut Tour!
Conditions at the start were not auspicious! On Sunday the 16th of April Cate and me, with our friends Martin, Nick and Chris, plus our guide Pierre and his partner Nathalie, set off from Le Fornet to reach the Prariond hut above the Maupassant gorge – in dense fog. The visibility was so poor that we followed Pierre at close range, while Pierre used a length of fluorescent rope that he threw ahead of himself as he inched forward to identify the terrain ahead.
Thankfully, we reached the hut intact, and from then on the tour became magnificent! From the Prariond hut on the next morning we climbed over the Col de Galise before descending into Italy and the Refugio del Fonds. This was our first “proper” day of skinning, with an ascent of just over 1000m, and the reward was to stay in a beautiful, cosy Italian hut, with delicious traditional food and wine (we were clearly not going to lose weight on this tour!)
To add to the atmosphere, the next morning we discovered that the hut had it’s own “tame” arctic fox – clearly also benefitting from the Hut’s chef, and very happy to pose for photos. The next stage was another big skin and ski to the Refugio del Mario Bezzi in Valgrisenche, a more traditional hut, and a place where we were to spend a couple of nights. On day four we set off for a day tour (lovely to leave half the weight of our packs back at the hut!) and climbed the steep slope behind the hut to reach a col. The climb was technically tricky, requiring kick turns on the steep and (sometimes) icy face, and it was a relief to get to the top and enjoy the descent back to the hut and a reward of cold beers.
The next day we were back to full packs for the longest climb (over 1100m) to the Col Giasson (and back up the icy steep slope of kick turns!), followed by a long descent to the village of Usellières and the guest house Giasson. The village and guest house are only accessible on skis in the winter, but well worth the effort: It was a terrific destination, with hot showers, comfortable beds, and delicious food and drink. Even better, we were to spend two nights here!
On the Friday Cate and Martin decided to have a rest day and enjoy the guest house, whilst I went up the hill with Nick, Chris and our guides Pierre and Nathalie. Pierre kept up a fast pace, and we climbed 900m in fresh snow, whilst conditions around us deteriorated – fresh snow and ominous clouds. At a col by mid-morning Pierre decided that it was time to turn round – the perfect moment, it turned out, as the fresh snow had softened in the warmth, but not yet turned to slush, and we enjoyed a few hundred metres of powder skiing on the descent.
Saturday was the last day of the trip, and involved a walk followed by skin to get to the Col du Mont (and the Italian/French border), from where we descended back towards St Foy. The descent was awful! Heavy, wet snow and slush, with flat light; so skiing down was cautious! Thankfully, we got down without incident, and reached the roadhead at Le Crot where a taxi picked us up and took us home.
Overall, despite some challenging conditions, we were lucky with the weather and the skiing. It was a great week out in the mountains, and lovely to be touring with our friends. I have put together a little slideshow of the week – just click on one of the pictures below to see it.
Our skiing season has now come to an end. We are returning to the UK for a week to visit friends and family, and will be flying out to Greece to start another Summer season on our boat – look out for the first post of the Summer soon!
