Vanoise on 25.05.2024 | Narrow-board driver

Snow condition

From approx. 2300m snow for the ascent. Descent possible on the north side at the edge of the valley up to almost 2000m.

Snow quality

The finest powder in the upper part. At the bottom, firn or even summer snow in places. So perfect May conditions.

Overall impression

Hello, Here's my first CR from beautiful France. Two buddies from the PG team said that a few CRs from the Western Alps would be cool. Here they are (a bit late, it was a great season with lots of deep powder days, so I could have reported a lot...). Grand Casse: Actually, the plan was to spend the night at the Refuge du Col de Vanoise from Saturday to Sunday. It is manned every Saturday in May. On all other days it remains open and is a winter shelter with a gas stove, wood and blankets. Water must be melted. Unfortunately, it was fully booked for Saturday. We therefore drove from Grenoble to Pralognan in the evening and climbed up to the hut on Friday evening in rain and snowfall. Between 25-35cm of fresh snow at altitude. On Saturday, the snow had opened up and was much heavier than expected. We started at the hut at 4:50 a.m. As I didn't want to do all the tracks alone, I waited half an hour for the Tyrolean mountain guide. That's why we didn't reach the summit until around 9:20. But it was colder than forecast, so it was better anyway. From the summit you could see a group climbing up the north face: Looked like quite a scramble and at 9:30 they were still in the lower quarter. I think they broke it off then, anything else would have been too late with daytime warming. There was also too much fresh snow for a descent or ascent of the north face. It looked perfect and would certainly have been a lot of fun, but there was another mountain guide from Tyrol on a private tour who said there was too much fresh snow. We then went down the west side in 30cm of powder on a top base. The west side is also nice and steep, but a bit shorter. Well, now I have a reason to go there again for the north face ;). Colouir Italienne was probably done last week, but there is a length of ice that you have to belay. You can also do the tour in one day from the valley. Great view of Mont Blanc from the summit and generally beautiful corner with the Vanoise National Park. Snow line: approx. 2300m, but still plenty of snow. Ultra much at this altitude. Last week I was in the Bernese Oberland and went from the Lötschental in the west down to Recklingen via all kinds of peaks and huts (Hollandia, Konkordia, Finsteraarhorn) in the east via the Bächlilücke in 4 days: There is still a lot of snow in the Western Alps and the season will last a long time. It's currently raining or snowing again in Grenoble, so there will be some more snow at altitude.