Camping/Hiking in Alps Late November/December

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Andrewcarnegie1998 19 Nov 2019

Looking to camp and hike 2/3 days in the alps this November 28-1st December. We have a car and intend to drive to Correncon-en-Vercors and then hike up near the ski routes and then away from them to unpisted areas. It won’t be very extreme and is around 2000m max, but what are the french authorities like about camping and has anyone done something similar?

andy

 Doug 19 Nov 2019
In reply to Andrewcarnegie1998:

I live a bit south of the Vercors at around 1300m, the snow level at the moment is quite a bit below our village, with some 20 cm of snow in the fields & woods. At the weekend I skinned up to about 2000m and had a very pleasant ski down in knee deep powder. 

I would think twice about walking anywhere except with snowshoes. I doubt you'll have any probably with camping if you are discrete, although it might be more enjoyble staying in refuges & gites

 Toerag 19 Nov 2019
In reply to Doug:

>  I would think twice about walking anywhere except with snowshoes.

^^ This. & walking poles with decent baskets. They will make all the difference to your enjoyment (and actual ability to do the walking at all). Without them you could well be post-holing through deep snow (and it can be 6ft deep where it's drifted even at this time of year) at snail's pace and getting knackered, or falling over on verglas patches where streams & meltwater cross the paths.

> I doubt you'll have any probably with camping if you are discrete, although it might be more enjoyable staying in refuges & gites

If they're open - many in Austria / Germany / Italy close between the end of September and ski season. Most lift infrastructure will also be closed for maintenance.

To the OP - I say go for it though - if you get a fresh fall of snow you'll be virtually on your own in a winter wonderland.  My outlaws live near the Bavarian alps and I go walking/snowshoeing at altitudes between 1000-2000m on my xmas hols. Much of it is below treeline, but there's always a summit poking out to have lunch on, and little or no avalanche risk and no glaciers to worry about (I'm not trained in either so avoid them). There's bits with no snow, but others there's plenty. For me as a 'holiday warrior' the big difference is that in winter there's no-one else around and the huts & lifts are shut so I need to be in 'self-sufficiency mode' as opposed to 'summer mode'. Hit an exposed ridge or summit in the wind and your damp gloves will be freezing on your hands. I suspect you'll have no trouble wildcamping because of the lack of people (especially if you're hidden from sight from the valleys).

Look up the avalanche / ski site websites to find out the snow depth at the altitudes you're looking at.  All this wet weather we're having is putting down some decent snow in the alps already.

foto-webcam.eu is useful for further east in the alps but doesn't have any French stuff unfortunately for you.

edit - just looked at some average snowdepth data for the start of December for German places around your target altitude:-

Tegelberg 1720m 30cm, Herzogstand 1575m 30cm, Nebelhorn 2075m 90cm, Linderspitze 2300m 70cm, Osterfelder 1800m 50cm  This year the levels are pretty much bang on average, and they've not had the snow that's fallen further west.

Post edited at 15:30

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