Description
A beautiful ski tour, with a bit of everything - tree skiing, open faces and options for little couloirs/gullies. Nothing hard but in the trees ski section the trees can be close together.
Starting at Névache leave the village and go south, there is a path from the main parking but it can be hard to find, if you can’t find it head in to the village and there is a road that leads you to the track just after the bridge. Follow the track west for a short distance, then turn south and start to climb up through the trees following the summer footpath (roughly). Keep an eye out for the open gaps and gullies in the trees as you will be skiing back down this way. Keep climbing until it starts to level off and the angle gets easier. Follow the steam until the trees start to thin out. You will see a big rock sat in the middle of the valley floor, head to the left of it and then climb the west facing slopes behind it. From here head towards the Lac de Cristol. Pass by the Northern end of the lac and you will see a face open up that leads west up to the summit the spot height of 2576M.
Descent
From the spot height ski back to the open face and descend, it is possible to head off the face in to some of the smaller gullies you saw on the way up or stay on the face if you prefer.
As you near the lac you have 2 options: head back the way you came which may involve some poling or it is possible to stay high on the face and travers north to pass the big rock on the west side, this should be possible without any poling if you get the angle right.
No matter which side of the rock you go you need to end up back on the path at the 2092M height, as this is the best way down the next bit. Pick your way down through the trees, in good snow this is great fun, in poor snow it can be hard work. At the bottom head back to the bridge then the parking.
