Aig. de la Berangere

difficulty: pd
altitude: 3425 m.
month: February

Detailed map of this tour can be found here: map
However, I tried to do it from valley in one day. This time, without any partner. I thought I would be alone there, completely alone. But it turned out that a group of three people intended to honour the same summit as me.

I took different path from the valley to Refuge Tre la Tete, than it is shown in the map. Although the one in map is the official winter ski/snowshoe-path. I rather chose the summer variant that is perhaps safe in terms of avalanches but one has to carry skies on bag most of the way, which is annoying. Additionally, I lost that path a bit in the night.  

descent to canyon with small difficulties

Despite the night difficulties, I passed the Refuge Tre la Tete before 8am and continued to Refuge des Constricts. Shortly after that point, there is a bit technical part. I was lucky that there was only thin hard layer of snow on the slopes on the left side of the canyon. Otherwise, there might be some danger not only of avalanche but also that one could easily slide down and fall into that canyon. I rather chose crampons than flight.

loosing track on glacier

I saw the track of three people from previous day so I continued on glacier. It was ok until certain point where the wind and snow from night covered the track. I was little bit afraid so I didn't stay long on the glacier and as soon as possible I turned left into steep slope leading toward Refuge des Constricts. These slopes are easily doable with skis but at that point in the morning I found it better to take crampons and climb it in a direct way.

As soon as one reach the Refuge, wide open area offers many directions one can go and ski back down. I used a track from those three guy that left the Refuge one hour before. I could even see them 500 altitude meters above me. Thanks for the track guys!

Last 50 meters is little bit technical. Two rocky steps. Easy climbing but a mistake would be fatal.

Few seconds before I reached the summit, those three guys disappeared somewhere in the opposite face of that mountain. Good skiers I would say. They might already drink coffee when I was still on the summit. The descent until the bottom of the glacier was just world class. But from that point, in the middle of canyon, it was total disaster. The hard thin layer wasn't hard anymore and at some places it wasn't thin at all. That place that I run in the morining in few minutes, took me 1 hour at lunch time. I was quite happy when I passed that and met first tourist with snowshoes on Refuge Tre la Tete.