Couloir 2 (route shown) may not be it's real name but working left to right in this pic it fits. We'd been at Grande Montets all day, rocking the pistes and racing, and thought we'd finish up with a quick run down this at Le Tour, that neither myself nor Bob had ever done. Snow was not great, to be fair, quite hard, but the ambience was nice and it's good to know for a nice cold winter day with fresh snow, when you could really bomb down it, given it has a huge run-out area. Couloir 4, two over, going down a bit left, then hooking right, looks like the daddy though...
One I've been wanting to try for a couple of years. Starting at Flegere with on the classic Crochues-Berard traverse, but about halfway around the traverse just turn straight up the big couloir and climb to the top of the Pointe Alphonse Favre. Then there is a big descent, 30 degrees max at the top (so quite gentle), with a bit of it going over the Glacier du Mort (yup, "glacier of death"...it's not so bad). You end up in Le Buet and the train back to Chamonix. A really lovely descent, less travelled than the standard Crochues Berard and longer. And there is a very interesting and steep couloir option (west face) below the Pointe, facing the Col de Berard, that would be worth a look at sometime. Full set of pics here.
