At the peak of Cuyaralet with Pico Anayet in the background

The area around Col de Portalet is a winter playground with lots of excellent routes for snowshoeing, ski touring and for the younger ones some fantastic sledging! It’s quite high and well protected from the wind so it’s snow sure even in times when there’s not too much of the white stuff around.

Took Dave up to the peak of Cuyaralet (2286m) which is just into France – the route actually starts from the border post. The weather forescast wasn’t great making Cuyaralet a good choice of peak as it’s not a long day and nav back to the road is nice and easy in case of a white out!

Dave enjoying some powder on the way down

Wrapped up against the cold

The weather was pretty chilly as we set out and dark clouds were threatening so we hurried up at quite a pace, both of us well wrapped up against the cold.

It’s a fairly gradual ascent to start with and then gets steeper as you get closer to the summit.

There were quite a few ski tourers out – it’s a popular route for beginners as it’s not too steep.

Snow conditions weren’t great for skiing though and they looked to be having a hard time on the way down.

The summit gave nice views into the valley of Canal Roya and across to Pico Anayet but the weather looked to be closing in so we only spent a few minutes on the peak before heading down.

Starting on the steeper section

In fact as we made our way down the weather cleared up and there was quite a bit of blue sky above. No longer in such a hurry we had a picnic and then played around in some powder for a while before heading back to the car.

The peak of Cuyaralet in the centre bathed in sunshine now we're on the way down!

There are plenty of other good routes in the area – Canal Roya and Peak l’Iou are another two of my favourites.