Café Liégeois

A fantastic line accessible by a short bootpack from the top of the Grattalu chairlift. The little effort required to hike to this couloir luckily keeps the masses away!

Freeride Skiing Difficult

Distance: 1.3 km
Ascent: 177 m
Descent: 409 m

Low Point: 2.5 km
High Point: 2.8 km
Gradient: 42˚

Café Liégeois is accessed by hiking up to the ridge straight in front of you as you get off the Grattalu chairlift. This ridge is split by a couloir that is easily skied down towards Lac du Grattalu and into the backside of Pointe du Chardonnet. Keep your height and traverse skier's right to save too much of a hike before taking your skis/boards off on the back (west) side of Pointe du Chardonnet. Don’t boot up directly to the summit, rather head for the Col between the two peaks to access the top of this hidden gem.

Photo from Café Liégeois — Photo: Holly Burns

Description

Once at the top of the col, the wide top section of Café Liégeois is revealed to you. It’s best to drop in on the skier’s left hand side of the entrance as the right hand section of this couloir is frequently rocky, or only just has enough snow coverage to hide the rocks.

Be prepared to find a tricky cornice at the top of this route, which sometimes needs to be easily down-climbed to reach a small hollow where you can put your skis/boards on and get going.

The skiing is steep and sustained for the wide top section and in a truly awesome surrounding with large rocky walls either side of you. When the couloir walls start to narrow, this is when the angle starts to kick back slightly and you can start opening out the turns into the Chardonnet Bowl which leads back down to the Merles chairlift, you’ll be sure to find a fresh path down after your efforts to reach this area of the bowl!