Mid-Station Couloir

When you take the Tram up to the Pic du Midi, consider getting off at the mid-station. There is a lot of great skiing from the mid-station/Le Taoulet. The west face of Le Taoulet has a number of great lines that fill in differently every year. You can exit the mid-station and walk/ski to the top of your chosen descent. You can also approach this terrain by skiing down from the top of the Panoramic lift (La Mongie) into the Sencours valley and booting up the couloirs on the west aspect of Le Taoulet. This is nice because you can inspect the coverage as you approach. There are two options to exit once your adventure on the west face is finished. Either continue to ski out (north) and into the Arizes valley and then out (east) to the D918 road, where you can often catch a bus or hitchhike back to La Mongie, or skin back up (south) to La Coume piste. I prefer the skin out, it is only 15-30min, and gets you back into the ski area directly. More info and photos at www.couloirquest.com. The difficulty rating for this route uses the posted FATMAP criteria.