La
Face is the descent down the glacier west of the top cable
car. The initial section is steep and crevassed. It can be intimidating.
The glacier soon opens out to the very wide Dome.
Ski hard left to meet the area served by the Bochard lift. Central
to the top of La Herse or hug the rocks to the right down the Combe
des Rachasses. This is quite sheltered and will often give good snow
in windy conditions. It leads to the Italian Bowl.
Glacier des Rognon
This north-facing area offers some fantastic off-piste skiing down
long steep descents from the "Combe du Cordier" on the far right hand
side to the steep "Grand Mur" (Big Wall) on the left hand side of
the glacier.
The skiing is technically difficult with crevasse and avalanche danger
and many of the routes (especially on the right hand side) threatened
by serac falls.
The Bochard and the Herse
This vast sector served by the 2 cable cars of the same name, offers
several possibilities of fantastic descents although the top zone is on
a glacier and there is always a risk of avalanche after a new snow fall.
All the sector gets quickly tracked but as the skiing area
is immense, one can always find a new powder track to ski and progress each time a little more.
The cable car of
Bochard gives access, on the left of the ski domain, to the comb of La Pendant (Lavancher), a vast comb usually little attended that one can
go down 1000 vertical meters. To turn over towards Lognan, one
travels by the chair-lift of the retour Pendant.
One can also continue the descent by a way which crosses the forest to the village of Lavancher (in all 1600 vertical meters).
Pas de Chevre
This fantastic off-piste run goes from
the top of the Grands Montets down to meet the Mer de Glace and
then with good snow conditions you can ski down to Chamonix, a vertical
descent of 2300 metres!
The route descends west from the top lift
station and then there is a choice four couloirs. The following
lists them looking down from right to left.
1-Pas
de Chevre 2-Central Couloir - these both have
slopes of around 30 degrees but have some narrow and often rocky
areas in the middle where a slip or fall can be very serious. 3-Rectiligne 4-Couloir du Dru - these are long
narrow and steep couloirs, the snow conditions can be very icy and
skiers can't afford to fall at any point during the descent.
All of these descents require good snow conditions and there is
avalanche danger and complex route finding, especially on the lower
slopes below the couloirs. However, in good conditions they provide
a wonderful way to finish a day of skiing on the Grands Montets.
