‘There are enough new routes to last a lifetime’: ski touring in the French Alps

The Haute Tarentaise region is ideal for clipping on your touring skis, escaping the resort crowds, and discovering a world of spectacular, little-known valleys as far as the Italian border

I’m skiing in the heart of France’s Haute Tarentaise region, surrounded by some of the biggest and best-known ski resorts in the world – to the west I can see the chairlifts of the huge Paradiski area (Les Arcs and La Plagne), to the south are Tignes and Val d’Isère, immediately north are the slopes of La Rosière, and beyond a high ridge to my left is the small ski resort of Sainte-Foy.

Yet other than my friend Hugh there’s not a soul to be seen nor a sound to be heard, other than the tinkling of a mountain stream beneath the snow. That’s because we are ski touring a little-known valley that forks off from the Isère and, despite the close proximity of all these ski resorts and the thousands of skiers careering down their slopes, it feels like we’re a million miles from lift-assisted skiing.