A moderate and fun line down some serious glaciated terrain on the Italian side of the Vallée Blanche.

Statistics

39

m

506

m

34

max°

Difficulty

FATMAP difficulty grade

Moderate

Description

From the Helbronner head out left to the Col des Flambeaux.

From the Col ski just to the left of the fall-line to reach a plateau.

Traverse across the plateau and ski the vague shallow gully on the right (this section often holds good cold snow) down the fall line into the main Vallée Blanche basin and join the classic Vallée Blanche.

As you are on a glacier make sure you are equipped, prepared and have practised crevasse rescue, however unlikely you think falling in a crevasse is- it is possible! A minimum would be each person to have harness, axe, crampons, an ice screw, 3 prussiks, several screwgates, a pulley/DMM Revolver karabiner, a couple of slings and 2 30m ropes in the group.

A more modern simple solution substituting for many of the above might be 2 Petzl RAD systems in the group.

If you have any doubts about this ski with an IFMGA Mountain Guide.