This un-named variant on the east face of bellevarde is a another line in the espace killy what rarely gets skied. This variant is a east facing quite exposed 40 degree ramp, with a small rock barrier grading the entrance.
On february 1st, I (punx) had a succssful decsent of an un-named variant on the bellevarde. The weather was perfect blue skis with 10 to 15mph winds. The temperature at 2100 meters was -8 in the morning, rising to -3 by mid afternoon.
From the top of the grand pre, i traversed to the east. Then cut a high traverse via the south face of charvet to a small col what takes you to the east face. From the col i skied down to a small rock on the right of the line, to see if there is a small passage i could ski through. I could not really see if there was any possible way through, so i decided to traverse across to left to have a look. In the short distance i went from the rock, the snow went from random pockets of wind slab, to full on bomb proof conditions. I got on the radio to tell lil punk that there is a narrow rocky passage at the entry what could be passable with care. Lil punk decided he didn’t want to ski this variant and skied the deversoir on the right of my line instead.
I side slipped carefully through the narrow passage in to the ramp. The snow conditions didn’t improve much on the ramp. I side slipped another 10 meters to were it open’s up. After 10 minutes of leg burning, lung exploding touchier i made it out of the ramp and into the bowl. From the bowl i traversed under a small cliff into the bottom section off deversoir and back to the manchet chairlift, were lil punk was waiting for me.
