09.12.2023

A visit to the hospice at the Col du Grand Saint Bernard has become a permanent fixture in my diary at the weekend closest to Saint Lucy's Day. Mentally, it marks the first proper days of skiing for the season and is probably one of my most anticipated weekends of the year. Not necessarily for the skiing; in fact, I am still to really experience the slopes of the Western Valais in good condition. I like it more for the atmosphere in the hospice and the time spent with friends after the actual skiing takes place.

Nonetheless, there was some skiing to do, and given mixed conditions and a group of seven, we decided to repeat last year's outing. Les Monts Telliers provides a relatively simple route from the start point at the tunnel at Bourg Saint Bernard, and with the light being extremely flat and snow predicted in the early afternoon, it was a sensible choice.

We arrived at 10 am, and many groups had already set off for the day, with the car park being almost full. Keen also was the majority of our group arriving at 9h15; they also decided to head off before we arrived, giving us 45 minutes to make up.

The route was quite self-explanatory, and we set off towards the valley that spurs off from the road that heads up to the col. The weather was already looking grim by the time we started the main climb, and by the time we turned off towards the la combe de Drône, the snow had started to come down. We had about 500m+ left to do, and it didn’t look great. I was pretty set on making the call and turning around but decided to continue on until cresting the main slope before fully committing to this decision.

Fortunately, we didn’t turn around, as the snow stopped as soon as it had started, and we even managed to punch through the patch of thick clouds. A glimpse of almost blue skies popped out, and then we caught sight of our group ahead of us. This made the idea of turning around seem obsolete and we shuffled on to catch up with guys ahead.

Views over towards Mont Velan looking moody

I remembered the last section of the route being a bit exposed and as we reached the last ridgeline, we decided to take the skis off and bootpack the last 50m+. We were all one big group of seven now and the steps kicked out were gladly borrowed as the top of the mountain had taken a fair amount of wind over the last days. I was slightly concerned at the risk of windslab, but we spaced out and passed the steeper headwall without any issues gladly.

The weather window we had miraculously found did not look like it was hanging around so after a quick visit to les Monts Telliers summit (2977m), we whipped the skins off and set upon skiing off the top section which was the most tricky section of the route.

View south towards la Pointe de la Drone (2949m) and la Pointe des Trois Lacs (2796m)

Any fears of the summit descent were quickly avoided as the group successfully navigated the tricky traverse on the windy face. All that was left now was the gentle descent back down to the road. The snow was good, light and untracked, but the flat light took away from what would have been excellent on a better day.

All that was left was the last hour climb up to the hospice. There were no complications, but the weather did turn for the worse and required the completely foul weather set of clothes with goggles. In the end, the hospice was a pleasant site.

Depart: 10h10, Summit: 13h20, Back to the Road: 14h30, Hospice: 15h50

14.1km 1,443m+: