This past Sunday’s (24.2.) hiking trip took us to an abandoned ski station of St. Honoré 1500 above the Matheysine plain. We had seen the buildings of the old station from the valley below many times when driving towards La Mure or back, wondering what they were; they looked like a ski station, but we had no idea that it was pretty much closed before it was finished or started operation.

We started to walk up to the lake Lac-de-Charlet at about 1900 metes. The trail started in the forest and was mostly covered in snow. It was very walkable though, since the snow was hard but not too icy. Once we were out of the forest the conditions changed. The uphill was not steep, but the slope we were on was, and the footstep “trail” made by previous hikers, mostly ski tourers (ski de randonnée), was not level at all. That was when the snow started to get icy, and the footsteps got shallower and shallower, so we turned back. Crampons are next in our shopping list.

We took another, much sunnier direction to Clos de Mouche, and found a perfect lunch spot at the old shepherd hut. Upon our return to the ski station we explored the ruins a bit before starting our drive home. Another great day spent actively in abundant sunshine and Spring-like temperatures on the mountains! We are a bit worried this is the destiny that many ski stations around here will face with warming winter temperatures and lack of snow. Some of them have already started boosting Summer activities.