WinterCamping | Vive la France - Part I

Chamonix

When you think of skiing in France, you (or at least I) think of Chamonix. And that's exactly where our first destination - and the venue for Steffen's small but lovely stag party - was to be. With the added joy of seeing each other again, we kicked off our trip with a boozy evening. Just this much: Sunlight sells a robust product that also offers enough space for six men to dance. The next morning, it took a while for the whole team to regain their fitness for transportation.

Then we transformed our bachelor Steffen into the all-star from Chamonix: Glen Plake! In order to provide "Glen" with the necessary challenge for the day on the slopes, some of which were a bit icy, he was put on the monoski. The tour through "his" ski area was visually accompanied by chic 80s outfits. After the abseiling training at the village bridge, we stopped for a pizza in Argentière. With a number of monoskis and old powder boards as decoration, the restaurant "Le Recard" matched our outfits perfectly.

For our first tour in Chamonix, we started the next morning on the north side: with the help of the lifts from La Flégère, we made a short and steep ascent to the Col des Aiguilles Crochue. On the last 100 m, which had to be tackled as a bootpack, the constantly jingling bell on "Glen's" climbing harness relaxed us. After a snack in the sun, the group split up: one group opted for the traverse and the ascent to the Col de Bérard, while the second group climbed steeply up the Alphonse Favre again to meet up again in the valley basin after a steep north-facing slope.

At the Favre, Benni and Totti get the bug: they can't miss out on the "beautiful view". So they descend a little and climb up to the Aiguille du Belvédère once again. The first descent offers light and shade: sometimes windswept, here and there a few tracks from our predecessors, but also a few beautiful turns in lightly blown drift snow. As the northern slope becomes flatter and opens up into the valley basin, the snow becomes softer and deeper, but the slope also becomes much more rutted.

La Clusaz and La Grave

We continue on to La Clusaz. But unfortunately there is bad news for breakfast: Totti's family is ill and he has to make his way home. So the group split into a shuttle to Geneva and a day on the slopes in La Clusaz, as we had little luck with the weather that day: it was all overcast, sleet in the valley, light snowfall on the mountain and, above all, far too warm. Nevertheless, we marvel at the rocks from "One of these days" and take on the local mogul slope. At the end of the day, we make our way to La Grave, where we plan to meet up with the rest of the gang later.

The reunion takes place at Gîte Le Rocher: three courses of the best home cooking together with the house guests. To finish, Sergio serves us a "small" génépi, a traditional Alpine herbal liqueur that is mainly produced in the French and Italian Alps. The beginning of a wonderful friendship with Sergio. We already knew and loved génépi, but the area around La Grave is particularly well-known for this specialty. We end the evening with a little song on the guitar in our Sunlight living room.

The next morning, a young lady in extra robust outdoor clothing wakes us up. The gondola at La Grave has rope damage, the repair work is in full swing and the young lady is waiting for her helicopter cab to the lift mast. We tourists park too close to the landing site and have to re-park before the first helicopter arrives. The platform is right on the edge of a cliff, there are a few trees next to it and it is impressive to see how precisely the pilot steers his machine during take-off and landing despite the strong wind.

Serre Chevallier

Unfortunately, the weather is rather modest on this day too. Too warm again - sleet. So we decide on another day on the slopes, this time in Serre Chevalier. We work our way through the area and take our lunch break at the other end, in Briançon. As the weather forecast for the next day is better, we spend the night at the Col du Lautare and have a burger for dinner at the Hôtel Des Glaciers. As the snowfall increases, so does our anticipation for the next day.

However, our sleep is interrupted by the roar of an engine. A driver has dug in the rear wheels of his van. Feeling in the accelerator seems to be a foreign concept. After our first offer to help has not triggered a reaction, we get up after another 10 minutes of yowling out of self-interest and do something for the German-French friendship: with our avalanche shovels, a short guide to driving in the snow and three pushers, the van is freed in a short time and the driver is very grateful not to have to spend the night at the pass.

Unfortunately, we wake up the next morning to heavy cloud cover and our hopes of a long tour are already fading. But our stop at the Café de la Ferme provides the decisive tip: while we are enjoying the excellent coffee variations, the barman returns from his morning tour. The clouds are only hanging in the basin, from 2,200 m upwards there is sunshine. So it's off to the slopes. Indeed, exactly as described, the sun welcomes us on the first plateau. Before the Col de Laurichard, we keep slightly to the left and climb more steeply up to the Villar-d'Arêne saddle at 2,857 m altitude.

The effort is rewarded. The first 350 m in particular offer wonderful fresh snow, despite one or two tracks from our predecessors. However, I hit a shark on one of the first turns and lose a ski. We approach the next turns with corresponding caution. In the meantime, the clouds have completely cleared in the valley and the snow is slowly getting heavier as the altitude decreases. Benni and Steffen still haven't had enough and set off again towards the Pyramide de Laurichard, while the rest of us enjoy the sun with a cool blonde.

Meanwhile, the weather gods continue to play ping-pong with our feelings. There's fog and light snowfall again, at least it's a bit colder now. We decide to head for Serre Chevallier once again. But today we don't want to give up right away and put our backpacks on our backs and are rewarded: as we get out of the Yret lift in the early afternoon, the clouds clear and the sun shines in our faces. From the Col du Vent, we traverse along the Pointe des Neyzets towards the east and climb 2,600 m through a rock gate over to the northern slope. Wow, nobody expected it to be so fluffy. Unfortunately, the slope only has 400 vertical meters before it ends back on the piste. So we quickly do a second run.

As we strap our skis back on after the rock gate, a cloud has crept in, we have to wait a moment and are glad that we're not standing on an unknown slope. Sometimes it's crazy how quickly the conditions change. When the sun comes out again a moment later, the slope is still nice to ski, but unfortunately not as fluffy as on the first run. Then the clouds return and we leave the rest of our energy on the slope. The sun awaits us in the valley again and the day's skiing leaves us with a grin on our faces.

In part 2, you can find out how our trip continues. We tell you about a deserted La Grave, how long ten minutes can be - and reveal where we will be heading this year.