La Grave

For those of you with a more adventrous streak you can easily take a trip to La Grave, famous for its wide variety of couloirs, as its only half an hour away by car.

La Grave has some of the most demanding high-altitude skiing and snowboarding in Europe, with an extraordinary vertical drop of 2200m through dramatic glacial scenery.

The old but efficient gondola takes half an hour to climb from the village of La Grave to the top station. You must then find your own way down between the giant séracs and yawning crevasses. The main routes are clearly indicated but stray from the well-beaten path, and you may encounter some spectacular couloirs. Runs such at le Pan de Rideau, start with a traverse along the edge of cliffs that requires a certain degree of concentration even for the most experienced powderhound, so its probably wise to hire a local guide.

On a good powder day this is as good as it gets. There is a wide variety of couloirs – some unthreatening in good snow, others much more severe, particularly in icy conditions when they are best avoided, no matter how skilful the skier. Negotiating a terrifying “no fall zone” traverse is necessary to get to the legendary Pan de Rideau (Curtain’s Edge) which is almost 50 degrees in places, with a bergschrund (crevasse between the glacier and the rock) at the bottom.

The most infamous of all the routes are the three Trifide couloirs, the scene of many tragic accidents, but each April, hundreds of snowboarders and skiers gather at the top of the slopes, generally at the Dome de la Lauze at 3,550m, for the La Grave Derby – a 2150 metre (7054 feet) vertical drop. Some racers, making as few as half a dozen turns, have completed the course in little more than six minutes!

On the other side of the mountain there’s an excellent and not over-difficult off-piste run down to the remote climbing village of St-Christophe-en-Oisans – again, best done with a guide.