Tim, Erna Low rep in Les Arcs reports in his latest blog update:
It’s getting mightily warm in the French Alps but there is still some excellent snow to be had. Looking at the slushy pistes you’d be forgiven for thinking it would be impossible to find any powder. Of course you’d be wrong!
High up on North facing slopes there is white gold for those willing to search. Since the last snowfall I have been scouting a couloir which is visible from most of the Les Arcs domain looking towards La Plagne. It has been taunting me every time I see it “ski me… ski me!”
The Moulin Couloir as seen from Les Arcs
The “Moulin couloir” is no ordinary off piste itinerary though. It is an avalanche corridor through dense forest with no escape route. Most seasons it doesn’t have enough snow in it to be skiable. This winter, however, is exceptional.
Asking around, it took a while to find anyone who’d even heard of it, let alone skied it. Many instructors and ski patrollers have been around these parts for years and don’t even know how to get to it. So it was only after careful research that my friend and I set off to find it.
From the Bellecote Glacier sector of La Plagne we hiked the Friolin ridge, passed some other rarely skied entrance points and then traversed into new territory. Some steep skiing on soft shady snow awaited us before another traverse and some stepping up to get back on the ridge. After a false summit we reached the “Croix Bozon” at around 2300m.
Croix Bozon
The entrance to the couloir is magnificent. A steep sided bowl which plunges through a narrow chute underneath impressive rocky outcrops. It looks like no man’s land because once you’re in it you know there’s no turning back. The descent finishes at the village of Moulin which can be seen in the distance below at 1300m so we’re talking about 1km of vertical drop!
The entrance to no man's land
The first turns were somewhat tentative knowing that an avalanche here would take you a very long way down. Once it opened up a bit and the steepness eased, I could breath deeper and appreciate the ambience of such a wild place. Lower down there were a couple of spring avalanches which had deposited boulders of icy snow in our path to remind us that nature is boss. The last quarter looked much less fun to ski so we took the easy option and followed a hiking trail through the woods to a river for a picnic.
The last part of the challenge was to ski to the bus stop which did involve some unusually extreme terrain (for experienced freeriders only).
