Leaving the highway

Up to around 3100 m the route from La Gouille to Mont de l'Etoile along its SW ridge is the same as the normal route to Pointe de Vouasson. The latter is frequently visited by ski mountaineers, and there are tracks all over the gentle slopes. In contrast, the steeper Mont de l'Etoile only gets the occasional visitor. It's not too difficult to ski down the SW ridge from shortly below the SW summit, or down the SE slopes from a little more than a 100 meters NE of the true, NE summit, but Pointe de Vouasson is 120 m higher, the slopes are gentler and offers a choice between two long, yet easy ski descends. Actually, as I take this picture, I only know part of this just yet. Yesterday I went up to Pointe de Vouasson, and on the way down I took a detour to the base of the SW ridge of Mont de l'Etoile. I could see that that ridge was easy, and it looked like the route to the NE summit was probably doable. Mind you, I wasn't on skis but on snowshoes and had packed crampons and ice axe. And I would need them too, later on. 11 March 2014.