Everything lined up well today; good weather, stable snow and a promise of a lift back from Vallocine. It was time to try the long traverse; On foot from Les Houches church across the Aiguille Rouge to Le Buet. There are loads of little variations you could ski to get across, but today I wanted to cover some new ground for myself and stay away from the pistes and general half-term chaos on the lifts.
I set off wearing trainers up the road from Les Houches, and even had to turn down a lift from some friendly fellow tourers! No lifts today, vehicular or otherwise…. I passed some tourers and snowshoe groups on the first ascent to the Aiguille des Houches, and then it was quiet across to Brevant. 100m of piste later I ducked the ropes and went up and down to the Col Brevant. The next section was new ground for me, some great north facing slopes lead down into the wild valley on the north side of the Aiguille Rouge, near the “Pont d’Arleve”.
The next long skin up the valley was fairly flat, and a long way in the heat of the afternoon. I managed to stop and fill a water bottle at a stream before the final climb to the col next to Mont Buet. By this time the afternoon was wearing on, and I had promised to be back a little earlier so I left the Buet summit for another trip and headed down the Berard valley, some good cold snow in the shade, and back to Le Buet.
5hr 10min elapsed time, 2560m of ascent, 30km horizontal.
Looking down from the col du Brevant
Time for a refill, feet just about stayed dry
Not many people about, nice to have an entire valley to yourself at February half term.
