Traversée du Col de la Floria - Couloir N - Brèche de Bérard – Le Buet

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Encore une course remarquable à l’initiative de Philippe Dilloard, merci Philippe ! Entre une météo de printemps, une belle couche de poudreuse en orientation Nord et un BRA à 2, toutes les conditions étaient réunies pour aller pousser le bouchon un peu plus loin aujourd’hui. J’ai donc eu la chance de découvrir cette traversée « hors topo » qui part du télésiège de l’Index.

On est remonté sous le col de la Floria (2752m) d’abord en peaux puis en marche jusqu’au col. Du col on surplombe le couloir Nord (45^o début du couloir raide avec un étranglement) puis on est descendu dans la Combe de la Balme (sur le glacier de la Floria) jusqu’à env. 1900m ou on a rejoint la Combe de l'Envers de Bérard pour remonter à la Brèche de Bérard pour ensuite redescendre le Vallon de Bérard jusqu’au Buet.

Massif : Mont Blanc – Aiguilles Rouges

Carte topo : 3630OT (Chamonix)

Orientation : N (pour le descente dans le couloir)
Altitude de départ : 2385 (télésiège de l’Index)

1^er point culminant : 2752 (col de la Floria)

1^ère descente jusqu’à 1900m

2^nd point culminant : 2701 (Brèche de Bérard)

Altitude finale: 1330m (Village Le Buet)

Dénivelé positif : 1200m

Dénivelé négatif : 2400m

Voici les photos prises hier (cliquer pour agrandir):

Au départ de la Flégère de gauche à droite : 

Jean-Charles, Marc-Antoine et Philippe

Ca monte raide...

Du col de la Floria : vue sur la Mer de Glace

Vue sur le couloir N et le glacier de la Floria 

La ligne du jour

On remet les peaux pour la montée a la Brèche de Bérard

La Brèche qui nous permet d'acceder au Vallon de Bérard qui 
était plein de poudreuse c’est d’ailleurs pourquoi il n’y a plus
 de photos…  

Flégère - Col de la Floria – Floria Couloir N - Brèche de Bérard – Le Buet – Flégère

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This is yet another great idea for a tour by Philippe Dilloard. Between a spring like weather forecast (confirmed on the ground), north faces with lots of powder and a limited avy risk, this was the day to push the envelope a little bit further.  This Chamonix tour is in no tour guide manual nor anywhere else so thank you Philippe for sharing!

We started skinning directly under the col de la Floria (2752m) at first skinning then soon boot packing up to the pass. The pass overlooks a North-facing couloir (45^o and starting off with a choke) skied it and and then descended into the Combe de Balme Combe down to approx. 1900m where we made the junction with Combe de l'Envers de Bérard. We then went up to the Brèche de Bérard, skied down the Vallon de Bérard to the village of Le Buet and from there took the bus back to La Flégère.

Massif: Mont Blanc – Aiguilles Rouges

Topo map: 3630OT (Chamonix)

Aspect: N (for the couloir)
Starting elev: 2385 (Index six-pack)

1st high point : 2752 (col de la Floria)

1st descente down to 1900m

2^nd high point: 2701 (Brèche de Bérard)

Final elevation: 1330m (Village of Le Buet)

Net elev. gain: 1200m

Net skied: 2400m

Here are the pictures (click to enlarge):

At the Index top station the skins come on. From left to right:
Jean Charles, Marc-Antoine and Philippe

Skinning the reasonably steep boot pack

From the Col de la Florie vue on the Mer de Glace (sunlit in
 the middle)

View down the couloir and the Glacier de la Floria

The line of the day. The couloir drops 1,100 feet then you
go on to a  nice 35^o for about 1,700 feet on the glacier 

Transitioning at the junction from Combe de la Balme to
Combe de l'Envers de Berard for the skin up to the Breche de Berard (the keyhole)

On the hike up to the keyhole, view in the distance
of our line and the glacier below it.

On the ridge line to Breche de Berard  

 Breche de Berard, the keyhole that will let us drop in to the
Vallon de Berard  and more powder  dropping  another
5,000  feet of great skiing.
The skiing was so great, there are no more pictures...

Glacier du Tour via Col du Passon

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.

Here are the pictures (click to enlarge):

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

Aiguilles Rouges, traversée du col des Crochues à la Brèche de Bérard

Une très belle sortie organisé par Thierry Masson du CAF de Chamonix. Avec une météo au-delà de toutes espérances, une belle couche de poudreuse et un BRA à 2, toutes les conditions étaient réunies pour une belle sortie. J’ai donc eu hier la chance de découvrir cette traversée classique du ski de rando.

La montée commence soit au télésiège de l’Index soit au tire-fesse de la Floria (on a bien essayé mais il était HF…). Remonter sous le col des Crochues en peaux puis en escalade jusqu’au col puis traverser a ski la Combe de l'Envers de Bérard, la redescendre jusqu’à environ 2220m puis remettre les peaux pour remonter un couloir sur le versant sud qui mène à l'arête SW de l'Aiguille de Bérard puis suivre cette arête jusqu'à la Brèche de Bérard. Une frois la Brèche de Bérard traversée on est dans le Vallon de Bérard ce qui est l'objectif principal a cause de la qualité du ski (et aujourd;hui de la poudreuse) qu'on y trouve.  Tout ça se fait dans un grand décor avec des vues somptueuses et infinies aussi bien coté Mont Blanc et Haut Giffre que du Valais.

Massif : Mont Blanc – Aiguilles Rouges

Carte topo : 3630OT (Chamonix)

Altitude de départ : 2385 (télésiège de l’Index)

Point culminant : 2701 (col des Crochues)

Altitude arrivée : 1330m (Le Buet village)

Dénivelé positif : 825m

Dénivelé négatif : 1900m

Voici les photos prises hier (cliquer pour agrandir) :

Aiguille de la Floria

Combe de l'Envers de Bérard

Couloir versant sud qui mène à l'arête SW de l'Aiguille de Bérard

Thierry profite de son petit gouté

Vue de l'arête SW de l'Aiguille de Bérard, au milieu de l’image on peut voir
 la trace qui mène au Col de Bérard...

...et le zoom.

la Brèche de Bérard

Vue partielle du haut du Vallon de Bérard vers le Mont Buet

Vue partielle du bas du Vallon de Bérard

Glacier de Leschaux to Les Grandes Jorasses

Yesterday I went out with Jean Claude Mettefeu (a 100% bonified winter and mountain nut) to the Mont Blanc massif to ski the Glacier de Leschaux. The main attraction with this destination is one, we were the only two people in there, and second that’s the staging ground for all the ascensions of the climbs up the mythic north face of Grande Jorasses (4208 m). An alpinism feat was the winter ascent of this face in the 1960s. The first winter ascent on “Le Linceul” (the Shroud) a steep hanging ice-climb was successfully achieved by René Desmaison and Robert Flematti in 1968. However Demaison’s prior attempt with the young aspirant guide Serge Gousseault, turned into a two-week battle for survival as stone falls cut both their ropes and Gousseault developed frostbite and could not continue. When help finally came, Gousseault had been dead for three days, and Desmaison was informed by medical staff that "according to your medical check-up, you are dead". The incident led to bitter recriminations between Desmaison who suspected Maurice Herzog, the famous Annapurna climber (first man above 8000 m) who was mayor of Chamonix, of obstructing a prompt rescue as "punishment" for his impetuous actions during a 1966 Dru affair in which Demaison performed a, by his guiding company “unauthorized”  rescue, allegedly in order to court publicity… In any case on Les Grandes Jorasses has claimed a lot more victims (and still does) this is one of those places where mountain Darwinism is present in its most brutal form.

Our outing was just about exploring the glacier and ski the Jorasses only as high as it would hold snow. We only had to skin up about 3,000 feet but as we were lift aided, the ski down was close to 12,000 feet. Seems like a reasonable effort to reward ratio… The snow conditions were phenomenal and helped us escape any potentially ill-intentioned crevasses.

Here are the pictures (click to enlarge):

This tour starts at the same point as last the one; the tram
of the Aiguille du Midi up to  12,600 feet and the ski the
Vallee  Blanche down to about  7,000 feet to catch  the
entrance to the Glacier de Leschaux heading south. 

Jean Claude at the Mer de Glace seracs

Le Petit Rognon is an important marker down the Vallee Blanche

Yours truly in front of a gaping crevasse but not to fear I got
 my Whippet in hand...

There are so many "aiguilles" (needles) in Cham that a whole slew
of them are just commonly referred to as the "Aiguilles de
Chamonix"; you're in a good place when there are so
 many you can't even name them all...

Me at the entrance of the Glacier de Leschaux

Jean Claude breaking trail into the Glacier de Leschaux

The kind of hole you rather stay away from.

This is the winter Refuge du Couvercle (a hut) on the ridge line
between the Glacier de Tallefre  and the Glacier  de Leschaux.
"Couvercle" means lid and that thinbg on top is not a roof, its
actually a rock that's sticking out like that hence the name.

Well into the Glacier de Leschaux you can catch the first glimt
 of Les Grandes Jorasses to the right and les Petites Jorasses to the left.

Les Grandes Jorasses up close

Almost all the way in now...

If you only click to enlarge one picture of this post, this
would be  the one...