A rare sight for July. This steep slope on the north face of the Drus, made legendary by Bruno Gouvy's snowboard descent in 1986 and later skied by Guillaume Pierrel in 2024, now appears bare and mineral.
The absence of snow on this slope, suspended above a 1,000-meter drop, is all the more striking given that it remains almost entirely in the shade and sits at an altitude of nearly 3,400 meters. It's yet another symptom of the drought currently gripping the high mountains.
Under these conditions, it's difficult to imagine a skier linking even a few turns up there, since the compact snow that made those feats possible has simply vanished.
Le Dauphiné
