Ski Touring Holiday in the Queyras in the Alps

About the Queyras Mountains

Situated on the Alpine border of the French and Italien Alps, the Queyras has an excellent reputation for ski touring and back country skiing in France and the Alps in general, with a huge range of ski tours for all levels and abilities which are easily accessible from a number of mountain refuges. It has a very good snow record and benefits from the Southern French Alps sunny weather making it a perfect spring ski touring holiday destination.

It is wild and undiscovered with a strong culture and history influenced by its inaccessibility and position on the border between two countries. It is home to a UNESCO world heritage site, the forts of Vauban and has been classified as a Regional Nature Park. It is also home to the highest village in Europe, Saint Veran at 2040m where you will begin the tour.

Ski tour off into the wilderness of the Queyras Regional Nature Park in the Southern French Alps! Immerse yourself in this stunning high mountain environment: dramatic snowy peaks and cliffs, gullies of freshly fallen powder, wild animals watching you from their rocky outcrop and just a few high mountain refuges to remind you of civilisation. 

This ski tourer's paradise is made all the more welcoming by the high quality of these refuges - some with hot showers and running water no less!

Holiday Details

This is a multi day, refuge to refuge ski tour but with two nights in each refuge for optimal flexibility. This makes it easy for the high mountain guide to adapt the ski tours to take into account the conditions and abilities of the group and also means you get at least two days skiing with a light pack! You will start off with a skills day honing avalanche safety skills and off piste skiing before heading out into the remote Alpine wilderness.

Your guide for the trip is an experienced UIAGM high mountain guide and ski instructor local to the area. He has lots of local knowledge and will make your safety his top priority.

Safety equipment including avalanche safety kit is included but ski touring kit is not included as many people have their own kit. This is possible to hire for a supplement. For your own personal kit, have a look at our ski touring kit list for ideas on what to pack for this adventure and read all about ski touring on our blog! 

Who Will Love This Trip?

Ski touring experience is an advantage for this trip but not essential. You need to be a competent piste skier (a competent piste skier means being confident skiing any piste including black pistes) with some off piste experience, ideally in different snow conditions and have a good fitness level.  Have a read of our blog to see if you have the fitness and skiing ability for ski touring.

If you are looking for holiday staying in once place with day ski tours have a look at our Ski Touring Week in the Ecrins trip. We can also arrange private guiding for groups of four or more booking together on other dates and with a tailor made itinerary for you.

Itinerary

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BY TRAIN / BUS: 

This trip starts in Gap which has a local SNCF train station. There are direct train links to Gap from Grenoble TGV station there is also an overnight sleeper train from Paris to Gap.

There is also a regular coach service which operates from Aix-en-Provence TGV directly to Gap. 

You can plan your train journey using the Oui SNCF website. This works from all major European cities.

BY PLANE:

The nearest airports are Marseille and Grenoble.  From Marseille airport there is a regular coach service directly to Gap every two and a half hours. Plan your route by typing in Marseille Airport (Aeroport de Marseille Marignane) in the departure field and Gap SNCF in the arrival field with the correct dates and times to get the times. From Grenoble you would need to get the airport shuttle to the train station and then a train from Grenoble to Gap.

Please ask us about transport options when you enquire as we have become pros on getting people to this beautiful region!