DAY 4 VAL THORENS—ORELLE—VALMEINIER—VALOIRE—REFUGE DES AIGUILLES D’ARVES Aaron follows a dreamy ridgeline all the way down to Orelle. While the original Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt involves lots of traversing, this team’s route was all about the descending. Photo: Rowan Brandreth IN ORELLE , the hidden fourth valley, we hop in a taxi to Valmeinier and Valloire, two sleepy villages with little fanfare aside from skiing. Traditional French chalets pep-per the hillside, with sloping wooden roofs and just a few narrow winding streets. It’s clear that skiers don’t come here for the nightlife. So far, the weather is holding. Small and quiet compared to Les Tres Vallées, it’s easy to hunt for fresh turns at this family-friendly hill, even though none of us has visited this area before. We enjoy a leisurely slopeside cheese fondue for lunch, basking in the sun before realizing that we do, however, need to keep on moving. We still need to reach a remote refuge located in the next valley over, our last stay before we reach La Grave. From Valloire’s high point at just over 10,000 feet, we opt for the direct route to our next skin track, dropping into a steep face off the back. The snow thins and I lose count of how many times we take our skis on and off. After a little scrambling, we successfully pick our way through a rocky cliff band, cross the valley river over a rickety old bridge and start climbing. We’ve had it pretty easy today, descending tens of thou-sands of feet without ever completing the same run twice, and now we’re left with heavy legs. We happily sink back into the calm of a quiet skintrack. After negotiating a few creek crossings, using our skis to bridge small streams over-flowing with glacial melt, we reach the compact, metal-clad Refuge des Aiguilles d’Arves as vibrant pinks and oranges slowly dim the sky. Neatly perched on a steep, snowy hillside a few hundred feet above the valley floor, a cheesy French potato bake and a carafe of local red wine awaits. Fellow refuge-goers are curious to hear about our journey from Chamonix. The hut is managed by a wiry French couple, weathered and lean from a lifetime in the alpine. They quiz us about our route as they tend to dozens of skiers all at once, the warmth of the cabin lulling us into a calm daze. Yet tomorrow’s weather forecast is cause for concern: a storm blowing in by morning, without much blue sky for the next few days. All the other guests are planning to sleep in, enjoy thick slices of homemade bread and extra cups of coffee from the warmth of the hut, before descending back down-valley. It’s tempting to sleep in and take a bus the rest of the way. But we’ve come this far, so we decide our best option is to wake at 5 a.m. and make a break for La Grave, 12 miles and 3,500 feet of climbing away, while the weather holds. 072 The Ski Journal
The Ski Journal Volume 18, Issue 1: Page 72
