A visit to Vieux Chaillol
Today I tried to escape Grenoble's fog with my old buddies Christophe (sweet Dad o'mine) and Serge, my dad's pal. We went down south to enjoy some skitour with a classic skitour trip : the Vieux Chaillol (3163 m.) is the highest summit of Champsor mountains, directly near Gap.
After almost 2 hours driving, we left the car at the ski station Chaillol and at 8:30 we were ready for the 1700m road up to the top.
Soon we let the secured slopes to go for a walk in the grass, hiking on a thin layer of frozen snow between the large grassy zones. We passed a rocky bolt and arrived on a wide plateau from where we continued until the aptly-named Col de la Pisse (2354m).
From there we attacked the final slopes to the summit. It's under a surprisingly strong wind that we arrived to the top and enjoyed a breath-taking landscape despite my frozen fingers.
After an epic meal time between earth and sky, we rode in a perfect powder snow first and in some delicious smoothy "spring snow" afterward. I can't offer you any pictures of that, as I was too busy enjoying this moment :p
As a sign of luck, and to bring to a close this perfect day, the cloudy and stormy weather which was announced appeared just as we arrived at the bar for the traditional after-ski beer!
Cheers!
