Want To Know The Best Ski Tour Routes in Serre Chevalier?

BACKCOUNTRY BACKLASH

If you want to know the best ski tour routes don't ask a seasoned ski tourer. There's a backcountry backlash with a growing unofficial code to keep quiet about where to ski tour - and maintain radio silence on social media.

A wide expanse of rolling white ski touring country unfolded in front of us as we climbed upwards to our summit goal at 2753m - and not a soul in sight. The panoramic view to the south was of the impressive expanse of Serre Chevalier pistes, where hundreds of half term visitors were swarming down the slopes.

We chose this ski tour not only to keep away from the crowded slopes but, also, to avoid the increasingly busy backcountry areas. Since Covid closed the resorts in 2021/2022, many of the blissfully empty ski tour routes around us have seen more and more traffic with a backcountry boom fuelled by ski brands stoking the growing touring market with new gear.

You can see on the Strava Heat Map just how many have been taking the popular ski tour routes around us - and that's just those who use Strava.

Hands up, we have helped encourage more ski touring, extolling the virtues of earning your turns on STYLE ALTITUDE. But mostly we go with those, like the Swedes we were touring with in the main image, who already know the backcountry - and we'll only vaguely describe our touring routes on the Ski Blog.

If you introduce a group of mates to a favourite ski tour and, if the snow conditions are good, you'll hear that at least one has taken their friends there the next day. And so the number who know that route snowballs, excuse the pun.

This winter, with La Grave lift closed most of the winter, there have been even more ski tourers in our mountain playground as the guides have taken their clients to every accessible stash of snow as well as the regular ski tour routes up and around the Col du Lautaret. And who can blame them? At least, their clients pay for a mountain guides to show them the backcountry and keep them safe.

So, among seasoned ski tourers, there is a growing unofficial code to keep quiet about the best routes and to stop reporting on how good the snow is here or there in the backcountry. And, of course, maintain total radio silence on social media.