I guess the whole trip started in Wales on the friday. I'd gone out to meet everyone for Becca's Birthday and Dan came over after his mountain bike course. Due to transport problems people couldn't arrive with late in the day, so I went solo aiding on Craig Pant Ifans upper tier. This was alot or work, but I tried out a new system with my reverso. When everyone did arrive, I got a bit of climbing in nipping up "The Micah Eliminate (HS 4b)" with Tim Nixon and the "The Fang (HVS 5a)" with James Holmes. Both really good climbs, then topped off witha night of drinking and BBQ.
Saturday I drove up and met up with Dan at about 4ish so start our journey to Ecrins. I'd been worried about what to take with me, so I pretty much packed everything. The car looked a little over loaded to say the least. We drove to St Albans (Dans hometown) and manged to leave some kit behind, before leaving for the ferry at about 11. The drive to Dover was uneventfully (appart from the Dartford Tunnel, which turned out to be a bridge!). Traveling with Dan involves a lot of sitting around while he sleeps. Boarding the ferry went fine and we slept on the crossing, planning to carry on straight with the driving as soon as we where off.I took the first leg on the french roads, which went fine and we had no problems. We had a couple of hours kip at the roadside in an "Aire" (french service station). Literally just dossed down on in the carpark next to the car. We then drove through to Dijon, Reimes, Lyon then off to Grenoble and finally on our final stretch to La Berade. The final journey into the mountain settlement of La Berade was very scary. Bascially they crammed a route onto a like 75 degree mountainside. With a cra full of gear, it was pretty tough driving, made worse by our tired state. We got there though.
We soon found the campsite and set up. Then explored La Berade, finding the Masion des Guides, PGHM and the local shop. We tried to plan some climbing, something we soo realsied that we should have done back in England. We settled on a plan to take a day to get our heads around everything on the monday, and sort some stuff out. I think at this point we were completly overwhelmed with the size of everything, compounded by being so tired after the long drive.A new day rolled in and we breakfasted and set about sorting out some climbing. Eventually we planned on a doing a peak called Pic Coolidge (3775m). For this we checked the weather and called the Temple des Ecrins hut to stay for the night. We packed for three days, taking enough gear to bivi out should be need it. We totally didn't know what to expect so we ended up playing it a little conservativley and taking more rather than less. That said, we totally didn't take enough food with us. We started off on the the 2.5 hour walk in up the valley to the hut. Uphill all the way, this was pretty much a killer as our packs were so heavy, but we pushed on as we needed to make sure we arrived for the evening meal.
We thought that tea would be a just bowl of food. Oh how wrong we were. We were stuffed after out 3 course meal of soup, stew and then apple crumble. Eventually we got talking to the other on our table in a mixed on bad french and better english. Most of the peoplie on our talbe were heaidn up Pic Coolidge on the next day. We repacked our bags, leaving behind all our bivi gear and surplus stuff, then headed to bed.
Tuesday morning, 0400. I'd slept fit fully. I'm used to being really confident about when I go out climbing, but here I just felt out of my depth. I was nervous. Breakfast was very continental (bread, jams, and hot chocolate) but damn good, then we headed off. It was pitch when we left, but soon brightened up. We'd planned for 3 hours on the walk in, but it was only mostly up on scree, with a small no cravassed glacier to cross, this would put us at the Col de la Temple, where our Route (the South Ridge) started.So we raced in, bouyed up with manic enthusiasum. This rapidly degenerated to a fast plod as the terrain stayed steep and scrambley. I'll happily admit that I was getting knackered, so we had a welcome break when we stopped to to gear up before the glacier. I noticed that Dan was more nervous than me on ice/snow. It was well frozen neve, so I just stomped off up this slope,
hammering ahead trying to get off it as quick as possible. Dan followed and we each picked our own way up the massive scree slope above. I wish I'd taken Dans line as my was totally bollocks, quite literally 1 step forward, 2 steps back. We finally made it to the col, in 2.5 hours so the going was good.At the Col we roped up and started moving together. We raced on , moving together well and finding our route without much difficulty. The rock was good granite and thankfully wasn't actually that loose. The route was pretty easy to follow being as it was so obvious, we covered a rock ridge, then back onto a scree slope. At this point I think we were higher than we'd both ever been
. We were getting a little dehydrated, but wern't really having any affects of altitude. The scree gave way to a final snow slope which we headed off up. This slope proved a right killer. We just didn't seem to find an easy way to walk up it. We followed it into a gully, where I almost came off. I managed to stay on, and Dan braced himself. I was pretty lucky I didn't go, I would have dragged Dan off with me as we were still moving together with no belays at this point. I think we both subconciously slowed down a little, and took our time a little bit more. I know I did. Thankfully we pulled out of the gully, back onto a ridge up the summit. Moving together, on a pretty steep ridge I placed a load of gear. With eyes on the prize I didn't want to screw it all up with a silly slip off. We summited about in about 2 hours, 30 minutes over guidebook time. Somehow this small fact didn't really matter.
So we'd done our first peak, but an old adage was going to make it self very apparent."your only half way there when you get to the top"
Its not that we made any serious mistakes on the descent. The final snow slope on the way up (the first encountered on the descent) had been in the sun for quite some time now and was getting quite slushy. Weary of the many people descending above us, we moved as far away from them as possible lest they drop any rocks on us. That said, we raced down the slope with not other problems. We moved together well, and quickly but lost about an hour as we let our route finding slip. I was leading at this point and I just didn't look around enough if I'm honest. We managed to get down pretty well, but by the time we reached the col. We where both suffering from tiredness induced by the drive, the walk in to the hut, and doing our first route. Mentally I think we where just overwhelmed by the size and scale of everything. I think this photo sums us up well.
From the col, we descend the really dnagerous scree slope, quite paranoid that we would bring it down on the people below us, thankfully for us we didn't we crossed our finally snow slope and de-kitted in the boulders ready for the walk down. As much as we struggled to keep going on the walk down, it only tok us 1hr 10m to reach the hut, where we rested. Eventually we realised that our propsed plan of biviing out was a little too much for this first trip, so we repacked and headed back to La Berade and enjoyed a beer and a pizza in celebration of our first route. Whilst we sat at the cafe, loads of people that we'd met at the hut and on the route seemed to be walking by and all stopped to say hello, ask if we'd enjoyed ourselves and what our plans where. This was really cool, and made us feel quite at home. We dossed down at the campsite under the stars for that night with a plan to relocated to La Grave in the morning.
La Grave was a much bigger place than La Berade (with a much nicer road up to it). It had few more shops, but the main attraction was the Telepheric, which would get us up to +2000m and down for about £12. We agreed this was a small price to pay to get us out of a crap walk in. We got a plan in mind to do a route up the Enfortres Rocks, then up the glacier to the Breche de la Meije. Then from there we would attempt to climb up the Grand Doigt. This route went at AD, but we figure with a bivi at the base of our first route, we'd avoid the walk in and be there with enough time to get up and down. We resupplied at La Grave and took the Last telecabine up to the half way station and then set off across the moraines to find a suitable bivi spot and cache for the gear.
We'd packed a few extra jackets and warm clothes thinking it would be really cold sleeping out, but oddly it wasn't. We screwed up our route finding again on this walk in, costing us some time walking up scree slopes instead of the path. We found a nice flat spot between the moraines, about half a km from the base of our route. After flattening off the area, we settle down for some tea. The whole noodly-soup in a freezer bag idea worked again for our evening meal which also included bread, cheese and saucisson. We set the alarm clocks for 0300 and snuggled down and watched the stars some out.
I've never really bivied out in the mountains until this night (there was a failed attempt on Idwal), but it was amazing. We had the whole sky to ourselves and it truely a great night out. Its got me fired up for biving out in Britan much more especially since its so much lighter than a tent.
Well we woke up, at 0500 instead of 3. It was appear that I set my alarm and 3pm and Dan slept through his. No worries as we were already in prime position to start the route. We breakfasted (very continental) on hot chocolate, cheese, bread and snickers! We sorted the kit for cache and then headed out. We crossed the first snow slope and then had a pitch of climbing to start us off. After the first pitch we got moving together up the broken ground and ridge system. I think we both knew we wern't going to get onto the AD so headed up the most interesring way up the ridge. We moved together really quickly, over a few areas of loose rock (Dan later confessed that he'd very nearly been off a couple of times). All morning as we where moving we could here rock fall on the walls around us. In the end we missed the route and ended up on a knife-edge ridge which abruptly ended in a absiel. On our right was a sizable drop onto some scree, the left and drop into a madly cravasses glacier. Confronted with this dogdly looking abseiled Dan called it a day. He won't mind me saying that he got gripped. After some sugar and some water, we started our descent, bearing in mind lessons learnt on the climb before about route finding. We did pretty well, and took a lazy descent, mind full on knocking off any rocks.
I thought I would be really annoyed if we had to back off something. I wasn't at all. In fact I'm glad we made a good decision and Dan said something, instead of pushing on. I know I can be pretty unbearable if I suffer a dissapointment on a climb. Well not this time as I was more than happy with what we'd achieved. We legged it back to the bags and then to the telecabine to get down.
We decided that because of the need for another 2 days to do another route, and the fact that we where pretty wrecked (physically and mentally) we'd head home stopping off in Font on the way. Needless to say Font was crap and it meant we also had to navigate around Paris (also a crap idea). Eventually we got home.
I've learnt alot on this trip. Like a walking axe is clearly better than a technical tool for walking in the alps, Using huts and any means of getting up a mountain (telecabin, train) should be taken to reduce tiredness, planning is very important, as well as realising that you need to start small and build up (I didn't start climbing at E1). I can't wait to get back to the alps (possibly even this year) as like the post title says, its just a whole new place to play.
From the col, we descend the really dnagerous scree slope, quite paranoid that we would bring it down on the people below us, thankfully for us we didn't we crossed our finally snow slope and de-kitted in the boulders ready for the walk down. As much as we struggled to keep going on the walk down, it only tok us 1hr 10m to reach the hut, where we rested. Eventually we realised that our propsed plan of biviing out was a little too much for this first trip, so we repacked and headed back to La Berade and enjoyed a beer and a pizza in celebration of our first route. Whilst we sat at the cafe, loads of people that we'd met at the hut and on the route seemed to be walking by and all stopped to say hello, ask if we'd enjoyed ourselves and what our plans where. This was really cool, and made us feel quite at home. We dossed down at the campsite under the stars for that night with a plan to relocated to La Grave in the morning.
La Grave was a much bigger place than La Berade (with a much nicer road up to it). It had few more shops, but the main attraction was the Telepheric, which would get us up to +2000m and down for about £12. We agreed this was a small price to pay to get us out of a crap walk in. We got a plan in mind to do a route up the Enfortres Rocks, then up the glacier to the Breche de la Meije. Then from there we would attempt to climb up the Grand Doigt. This route went at AD, but we figure with a bivi at the base of our first route, we'd avoid the walk in and be there with enough time to get up and down. We resupplied at La Grave and took the Last telecabine up to the half way station and then set off across the moraines to find a suitable bivi spot and cache for the gear.We'd packed a few extra jackets and warm clothes thinking it would be really cold sleeping out, but oddly it wasn't. We screwed up our route finding again on this walk in, costing us some time walking up scree slopes instead of the path. We found a nice flat spot between the moraines, about half a km from the base of our route. After flattening off the area, we settle down for some tea. The whole noodly-soup in a freezer bag idea worked again for our evening meal which also included bread, cheese and saucisson. We set the alarm clocks for 0300 and snuggled down and watched the stars some out.
I've never really bivied out in the mountains until this night (there was a failed attempt on Idwal), but it was amazing. We had the whole sky to ourselves and it truely a great night out. Its got me fired up for biving out in Britan much more especially since its so much lighter than a tent.Well we woke up, at 0500 instead of 3. It was appear that I set my alarm and 3pm and Dan slept through his. No worries as we were already in prime position to start the route. We breakfasted (very continental) on hot chocolate, cheese, bread and snickers! We sorted the kit for cache and then headed out. We crossed the first snow slope and then had a pitch of climbing to start us off. After the first pitch we got moving together up the broken ground and ridge system. I think we both knew we wern't going to get onto the AD so headed up the most interesring way up the ridge. We moved together really quickly, over a few areas of loose rock (Dan later confessed that he'd very nearly been off a couple of times). All morning as we where moving we could here rock fall on the walls around us. In the end we missed the route and ended up on a knife-edge ridge which abruptly ended in a absiel. On our right was a sizable drop onto some scree, the left and drop into a madly cravasses glacier. Confronted with this dogdly looking abseiled Dan called it a day. He won't mind me saying that he got gripped. After some sugar and some water, we started our descent, bearing in mind lessons learnt on the climb before about route finding. We did pretty well, and took a lazy descent, mind full on knocking off any rocks.
I thought I would be really annoyed if we had to back off something. I wasn't at all. In fact I'm glad we made a good decision and Dan said something, instead of pushing on. I know I can be pretty unbearable if I suffer a dissapointment on a climb. Well not this time as I was more than happy with what we'd achieved. We legged it back to the bags and then to the telecabine to get down.We decided that because of the need for another 2 days to do another route, and the fact that we where pretty wrecked (physically and mentally) we'd head home stopping off in Font on the way. Needless to say Font was crap and it meant we also had to navigate around Paris (also a crap idea). Eventually we got home.
I've learnt alot on this trip. Like a walking axe is clearly better than a technical tool for walking in the alps, Using huts and any means of getting up a mountain (telecabin, train) should be taken to reduce tiredness, planning is very important, as well as realising that you need to start small and build up (I didn't start climbing at E1). I can't wait to get back to the alps (possibly even this year) as like the post title says, its just a whole new place to play.
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