This is one of these classic Chamonix tours that come with an almost indecent
effort to reward ratio: For a total skin/climb of 2,300 feet you get an 8,000
feet top quality ski (none of this flat ski out in the bushes kinda stuff…). Hard
to beat!
We were blessed with fresh powder (foot+), low avy risk (moderate) and
blue bird day with no wind! This was the kind of ski day where you have to
pinch yourself…
You start off by taking the tram to the top of the Grands Montets
resort. This takes you to the Col des Montets (Col is mountain pass) at 10,608
which is your real start on skis dropping 3,000 feet, not a bad start for a
rando day… You ski down the Glacier du Rognon akll the way down to the left
bank of the Glacier d’Argentière that you follow down for about 300m or so and
then take a sharp right to cross the glacier. It’s on the right bank of the Glacier
d’Argentière that you put on the skins and start working your way up the steep
moraine till it flattens up a bit and then continue on in a NE direction till
you reach the bottom of 1,000 fet or so couloir that you get to boot pack up in
snow then rock/snow mix (the only hard part of the day) till you reach the Col
du Passon at close to 10,000 feet. After that you get to ski top quality slopes
all the way to the village of Le Tour from where you’ll grab the Chamonix bus
back to Les Grands Montets.
Topo map: 3630OT (Chamonix)
Dominating aspect: NE
Starting elevation: 10,608 (Col des Montets)
Elevation where you put on the skins: 7,800 feet
Pass elevation: 9,936 feet
Elevation gain to the pass: 2,300 feet
Drop from pass to the Tour: 5,300 feet
Access by car:
Drive through Chamonix and at the last roundabout just before the village of
Argentière, drive into the parking lot of Les Grands Montets. There are one-way tickets available that this season cost 26.5 euros.
 |
| Col des Montets is where the tram ends and in red is our ski line till the left moraine of the Glacier d'Argentiere |
 |
| Coming off the tram: View of the Aiguille de Chardonnet (left) and the col de Chardonnet in the middle |
 |
| If proof was needed that these mountains are alive, this crater is from a serac that fell on the Glacier du Rognon a couple of days back... |
 |
| ...and that you can see here smack dab in the middle of all ski tracks. We saw this from a distance on our way down to the moraine of the Glacier d'Argentiere |
 |
| We are now on the left bank of the Glacier d'Argentiere with the seracs just to our right, we will follow them till the flat and cross the glacier there |
Crossing the Glacier d'Argentiere we get a glimt of our
objective of the day: Col du Passon
 |
| We have now crossed the glacier, hiked up the steep right bank moraine and getting onto the gentler slopes that will take us to the couloir we are gonna have to boot pack up |
 |
| We are not alone... |
 |
| Some people ahead of us are already on the boot pack (middle of the picture) |
 |
| We are now at the pass looking at others climbing. |
 |
| From the top of the Col du Passon looking back down the slope we boot packed , then further down on our skin track , the Glacier d'Argentiere dominated by the Aiguille Verte |
 |
| Now looking north we are on the Glacier du Tour trying to decide between left or right? We decided on left - looks like more fun skiing minus the serac risk |
 |
| One of many slopes we had to drudge through... All the way down is the Village du Tour |
 |
| The Glacier du Tour is dominated by the Aiguille du Tour, go figure... |
 |
| A look back onto the seracs of the Glacier du Tour |
No comments:
Post a Comment