Skitour: Loop around the Pierra Menta
Never stop skiing is our slogan with Camille. So we decided, after some hesitations, to go to the (very) snowy mountains of the Beaufortain. Our goal was to turn around the Pierra Menta, a big rocky tooth sticked on the ridge.
The weather forecast anounced the sun for Friday and Saturday. We had then to make a difficult choice between go in class or in the mountains. You guess what we chose...
We left Grenoble at noon and at 5 p.m we discovered the refuge of La Coire (winter refuge without guardian) where we spent the night. Despite the high promiscuity inthere (we were 20 for 14 effective couchs), we had not to sleep outside so the tent we brought stayed in the bag.
Here's a special big up for the guys and girls from the Alpine Club from Paris for feeding us with their wine and vodka they brought ! We were indeed amateurs in comparison of this highly equiped team. It was a great demonstration that Parisian are not only arrogant stressed assholes, as some may think ;)
After eating our obsolete (since 2011) lyophilized food, we spent the night in an overcrowded but very warm dormitory with our new parisian friends.
We woke up in the early morning with a breathtaking orange/red sunrise and we left the cosy refuge for the hostile slopes of the mountain. After passing without difficulty the Col du Coin, we had planned to pursue with Col des Bressons. But where 14 peoples passed the day before, there was absolutely no tracks because of the wind and so much snow that we heard some big and scary "Woof" as soon we walked at the bottom of the slopes. Already knowing this sort of advices of Mother Nature, which announce quite certainly an avalanche a bit later, we decided to go back with a bitter feeling of fail for aftertaste...
We were nevertheless lucky in our misfortune as we met a group of skiers in this area where we've seen nobody for the moment. They indicated us a small pass to the foot of the impressive rock of the Pierra Menta. The "Col Tutu", which was not on my 1997 map, made our day! As the orientation of the slopes was not the same, we felt no risks and arrived at this windy pass in the shadow of the stately Pierra Menta.
We reached then the refuge La Balme after a wonderful run in a cold powder snow. And after a small ascent and a big blister for Camille, we were back to the car and back to Grenoble right on time for the soup!
