Queyras snowshoeing - a new venue

It's always exciting going to a new mountain range, discovering new walks, poring over different maps, trying to work out new vistas.
The Queyras, situated in southeast France, right up against the Italian frontier, certainly didn't disappoint.

We were lucky to have a good 20cms of fresh snowfall last weekend, beautiful light snow that fell without wind. Then a light top up on Wednesday too. In between it was sunny and cold, just like it should be in the Alps in winter.

The walks took us up through pine and larch forest to cols and summits at around 2300m where we were greeted with fabulous views, notably of the nearby Ecrins massif and the mighty Monte Viso just over the border in Italy, famous for being visible from so many of the 4000m peaks in the Alps.

As usual the photos tell it better than I can.

Photo Joan Morley

I'll be back with another group in the Queyras in 2 weeks - let's hope we enjoy the same fabulous conditions. This will definitely be a regular on my snowshoeing programme.