These are ideas for professionally guided outings, not route directions. Beyond the marked pistes, avalanches, cliffs and glacier hazards demand specialist judgement. Choose the day’s route with an appropriately qualified local professional; carry a transceiver, shovel and probe and know how to use them.

Icons describe terrain, skiing demands and walking, including route variants. Skiing labels are descriptive, not official grades. Open terrain describes the landscape, not the snow conditions; a missing terrain icon does not mean that feature is absent.

Bellevarde · Manchet

Open terrain
Skiing: Steep sections
Walking: Guide to confirm

Behind Bellevarde, broad slopes give way to steeper ground and a narrow valley finish. This mountain journey towards Manchet offers a complete change of scenery from the busy pistes above. South-facing sections make timing and snow texture important.

Fredrik’s experience

A classic, with the photograph to match

Tour du Charvet is perhaps the most classic of all the classics. It starts around the top of Grand Pré, with only a few steps on foot. The familiar Val d’Isère sign is up there too: a proper photo opportunity, and one I would not want to miss as a visitor. It is a wonderfully recognisable beginning to a run that has any number of variations.

Many variations, serious boundaries

There are more direct lines, options farther to the right and others a little to the left. That variety should not be mistaken for freedom to go anywhere. The cliff band on the left is a serious boundary in my mind: those are unpleasant, impassable drops, and somewhere I absolutely do not want to end up. The right-hand variations can begin very, very gently before reaching steeper pitches. Large avalanches have also run through this terrain and finished in the stream gully below. Those gentle beginnings do not tell the whole story.

I particularly like Tour du Charvet after fresh snow, when the conditions are right. With the south-easterly exposure I associate with this run, timing matters enormously. I want the snow and the sun to meet at the right moment; the surface can change a great deal as the day warms up.

Couloir Mont Blanc

Photo supplied by Fredrik

My favourite lower variation

My favourite variation keeps to the right through the lower skiing, including a crossing of the little stream. I like the ground near the large mountain there. Staying on that side has given me an interesting final section of skiing that relatively few people seem to choose, before the longer run-out begins. That little extra piece of skiing is part of the attraction for me.

The valley is no picnic spot

The run-out brings the route into the continuation of the Manchet valley, where the terrain becomes a sharply cut ravine with steep sides on both sides. An avalanche coming into a confined valley like that can fill it. This is no place for a picnic. My memory of that section is of letting the skis glide and paying close attention to the slopes overhead, especially the sun-facing slope on the left. Late in a warm afternoon is exactly when I would be concerned about wet-snow avalanches there. Moving through does not make an unsuitable day suitable.

Near the final section, below Charvet, Manchet Express comes into view and the run-out makes a sharp left-hand bend. I remember regrouping around that part of the run, but I would not label any stop there as permanently safe. What follows looks surprisingly harmless. In my experience it is one of the places on the route most deserving of respect, with wet-snow avalanches and old avalanche debris sometimes crossing the track. It is so easy to switch off once the skiing appears to be over.

The finish still needs attention

The way I have approached that exposed finish is with attention to the slopes above and with the group crossing separately, rather than gathering on the track to chat. Farther along, I remember a very large boulder used as a sheltered regrouping point. The important distinction in that memory is between actually being tucked behind it and merely standing beside it; a rock’s presence alone is no assurance of protection. Those decisions belong to the conditions and the guide’s assessment on the day.

The lift is close by then, but there are still small details to notice. The route meets the cross-country tracks, where grooming can leave a sharp step that is difficult to see, and there is a little bridge in the final stretch. Only after that does the outing feel finished, with the return to the lift system. Tour du Charvet is a classic I love, but the quiet-looking end deserves just as much attention as the more obvious skiing above.

The less-travelled right-hand finish is my favourite; the confined Manchet run-out is the part I most want people to take seriously.

Sources

Terry Walker, TDC

A skier seen from behind on a steep snowy mountainside beneath a hazy sun. — Tour de Charvet

Photo by Fredrik Lennström

Optional analytics