Snow report Ecrins, 04/22/2017

Snow condition

The season is as good as over in la Grave. The last snowfalls were some time ago and there is "relatively" little snow in the entire part of the tour due to the season. The fixed points in the gullies are often too high due to a lack of snow and it is very difficult or impossible to reach them, for example in the Col de la Girose; Rateau is almost completely snow-free to the west. With the Glacier de l'Homme you can at least get down to around 2000 m. The walk to the parking lot then only takes 20 minutes.

Snow quality

Col de la Girose: Hard and challenging descent in the morning. It is therefore safest to abseil down at the moment. Attention: some fixed points are more than 30 m apart, then good firn descent to Rateau Breche du Rateau: Mostly snow-free on the ascent, but doable with wedges and easy climbing, very icy on the descent. You should be down here as early as possible as it gets hard very quickly. Breche de la Meije: Easy ascent. Descent over rock and ice can alternatively be accelerated with 30 m abseiling over the bergschrund. Glacier de la Meije: Unfortunately still frozen in the morning. still powdery in places but wind-pressed Serret du Savon: Good steps available. The gully is long, rock-hard and you should not fall. Glacier de l'Homme: Very good firn conditions around midday. Then it freezes again Tabuchet Glacier is probably also quite good, but the carrying passage is much longer

Virtually no danger of avalanches. Of course, you should take into account the time of day when planning. There has been a constant avalanche danger level 1 in the entire region for a few days. The risk of crevasses and falls is probably higher. For the entire tour and especially for the Traverse de Glaciers de la Meije, roping up is advisable.

Overall impression

The Refuge Promontoire and the Refuge de l'Aigle offer everything that the hard-pressed ski tourer could wish for. Good food and very friendly hosts. All in all, a magnificent high tour. The first day is certainly not the most interesting in terms of skiing, but the 1500 m descent over the Glacier de l'Homme on the second day is all the more ingenious.