backcountry journal
col de Berard - via the crochues ridge.
Chamonix
Chamonix
Feb & March 05. Jan 06
This is a classic and easy route in the Aiguilles Rouges sector of the Chamonix valley. I have done it several time, including a few diversions along the way.
This report is written retrospectively and does not relate to any particular time i took the route. I am sure we will do it again next season, at which stage I will update these journals with some tour-specific events.
The approach is serviced by the lift system at the Flegere resort. From the top lift climb the somewhat steep face leading up to cols des Aiguilles Crochues. This is an ascent requiring several switch backs that takes you up about 300m vertical to the col at 2700m. Every time I have seen it there has been a skin track up this combe. It gets a bit steep and narrow at the top and on a busy weekend the number of bodies heading up that way is a hassle and puts me off this tour. After the col you have to traverse for almost 1500m around a very wide bowl at the head of the valley. The view is significant and so too is the avalanche risk after heavy snowfall. However, most of the traverse is south facing and so the pack settles pretty quickly... and turns into quite hard conditions the morning after a warm day. The traverse gets plenty of solar radiation and plenty of traffic. The result is a nasty bumpy traverse. If you are a goofy foot snowboarder then you are in for some pain. Losing height of the traverse is an issue as there are drop-offs below the traverse line. Most goofy footers take pretty regular breaks along the traverse. At the end of the traverse you can do a number of things:
This report is written retrospectively and does not relate to any particular time i took the route. I am sure we will do it again next season, at which stage I will update these journals with some tour-specific events.
The approach is serviced by the lift system at the Flegere resort. From the top lift climb the somewhat steep face leading up to cols des Aiguilles Crochues. This is an ascent requiring several switch backs that takes you up about 300m vertical to the col at 2700m. Every time I have seen it there has been a skin track up this combe. It gets a bit steep and narrow at the top and on a busy weekend the number of bodies heading up that way is a hassle and puts me off this tour. After the col you have to traverse for almost 1500m around a very wide bowl at the head of the valley. The view is significant and so too is the avalanche risk after heavy snowfall. However, most of the traverse is south facing and so the pack settles pretty quickly... and turns into quite hard conditions the morning after a warm day. The traverse gets plenty of solar radiation and plenty of traffic. The result is a nasty bumpy traverse. If you are a goofy foot snowboarder then you are in for some pain. Losing height of the traverse is an issue as there are drop-offs below the traverse line. Most goofy footers take pretty regular breaks along the traverse. At the end of the traverse you can do a number of things:
- Head around the bend to col de Berard, traverse and climb up to the col at 2460m and enjoy the wide open rolling and dipping NE descent down the Berard Valley to the little town of le Buet. This is the lazy and shorter way up and down.
- Rather than start he ascending traverse to the col I prefer to swing a little wider to the norther and add 200m of vertical to the day by ascending to the Aiguille de Berard summit at 2663m. You are heading for a gap in the rocks, like a gun sight a few feet wide and walled with steep high rocks. This is the easy path to the NE side of the summit. Getting there requires a little more traversing along steep ground that in my opinion should force you to spread out (even more) in case of a slide. Depending on the snow conditions you may have to do some very minor scramble over a rock to reach the gap in the rocks. From there you enjoy the same descent as from the col, except you have earned 200m of more vert plus a steeper line down the valley.
- Put on your p-tex and ride down into the valley bowl heading west. After fresh snow this run is long open and very good. About 30-35 degrees. If you take this option then you have to hike back out as the valley doesn't take you anywhere useful for quite a long distance. We stopped when the bowl started to flatten out in the drainage area. After that we hike all the way back to the end of the traverse and then continued with the original route to Aiguille de Berard as per above. This is a reasonably long ascent of about 700m. The alternative is to simply climb up to col de Berard, but that is lazy and not nearly as much fun.
Nearing the top of Aiguille de Berard, through the gap and down the other side.
Before hitting the bone-jarring runout track, looking back up the line of descent. Col de Berard on the left with the aiguille to the right.
Once at the bottom of the valley you are faced with the long bumpy and tiring ride out along the creek. This is not good riding, but you can't avoid it. It goes for a few thousand meters and on tired legs you will crash, get stuck in dips, hit trees and sweat and swear. During a mid-spring descent through this valley my girlfriend and I came about 30m from being utterly pulverised by a spring snow release from a cliffy area about 50m high. It was a thundering waterfall of mushy snow and bits of mud and sticks that would easily have killed us both if we were just a little further down the track which had a 20m section buried in 4 feet of dirty heavy wet snow. For the remainder of the descent we stuck to the lowest point of the valley along the creek and didn't cut higher along the sides under the cliff. This was an extremely lucky lesson. In our planning for the trip we had specifically address this very danger, but forgot about it along the way. It was pure luck that it didn't get us or the people walking on snowshoes ahead of us. It reinforces the rule that we thought we always followed: spring tours should finish before the heat of the day, if not, stay well away from the bottom of cliffs and out of avalanche run out paths. After seeing some other spring avalanche debris up there that day I now expect avalanches to have a much longer run-out path than normal, that is, a lower alpha-angle.
The cliff that moments before had released a huge pile of wet snow from the top.
On that particular spring tour we chose to approach the col from the end point, le Buet. It was fun to walk up the valley from the bottom. Although long in distance, it is a very easy hike. I had returned from an ascent and descent of Mont Blanc the previous day and enjoyed the leisurely break in pace.
Anyway, once you reach the end of the Berard Valley commando course you can enjoy a few beers at a nice old hotel before catching the train back around to Chamonix.
There are a number of other descents into the Berard Valley from both the southern and northern valley walls. They all end in the same unpleasant run-out but many are steeper and have better quality and less tracked snow, for example the tour via col de Beugent.
[Mont Blanc guide for skiers, reference #144]
Anyway, once you reach the end of the Berard Valley commando course you can enjoy a few beers at a nice old hotel before catching the train back around to Chamonix.
There are a number of other descents into the Berard Valley from both the southern and northern valley walls. They all end in the same unpleasant run-out but many are steeper and have better quality and less tracked snow, for example the tour via col de Beugent.
[Mont Blanc guide for skiers, reference #144]