Pre-opening day turns at Mad River Glen with Buke, Pops and Boreas

https://vimeo.com/56219233

Late fall limestone down south

        

         With short days and new snow in the high mountains, we've given in to the low hanging fruit of sunny sport climbing. And man has it been fun. Over our fall break we teamed up with friends Ian and Jono for a three-day trip to the Italian coast, a couple hours south of Torino and just over four from Grenoble. This past weekend, Olivier shared his favorite cliff in France with Hillary and me, the mythical Buoux crag tucked into the rolling hills of Provence. Overall we're doing our best to stave off homesickness and lack of turkey with beautiful rocks, which is turning out to be an increasingly less effective strategy as Thanksgiving approaches.  

FINALE LIGURE, ITALY

         I hope the following photo montage will communicate the essentials of our trip -- friends, wicked steep limestone, 14 pizzas in less than 3 days, social car camping, and the occasional heel-hand match just to round things out (see four photos down). The transition to Italy hit us all pretty hard, both in terms of the language and deliciousness of food. Climbing became a bonus activity for us, and I can certainly imagine a fulfulling trip here entirely focused on village wandering, gelatto, fresh pizza and perhaps the occasional bike ride.  

         

BUOUX, FRANCE 

Attempting the "French blow"

        This cliff is "majeur" in every sense of the word, and I am already eager for a return visit. Sweeping 30-40m pitches wind their way up perfect stone featured with a combination of horizontal "strates" and tendon-wrenching solution pockets. The cliff is vast, and includes numerous 3-4 pitch adventures that we didn't begin to explore.
        Here, the quality of the routes is matched with an equally rich climbing history. We found a plaque at the base of the cliff on the second day honoring Patrick Edlinger's revolutionary soloing done here in the early 1980s, which is documented in the film La Vie au Bout des Doigts. The three of us talked with excitement about Edlinger's scheduled appearance at the Grenoble mountain film festival this week, only to find out yesterday that he passed away over the weekend at his home near the Verdon Gorge. The news caught us and above all our friend Jean Mi off guard, who just finished a biography on Edlinger and who planned to be on stage with him this Thursday. Jean Mi's eyes widened when we told him last night we had been at Buoux the day before, and he responded
by saying that the best possible tribute to Edlinger is to take to the cliffs.

Olivier leads up through 5.11 "bi-doigts" (two-finger pockets).

     Hillary dancing her way up 6a limestone pockets. Her climbing really took off over the course of the two trips.

ABOVE: We celebrated my birthday with roadside fondue, which in combination with digestive wine and Chartreuse made for a slow start on the rocks the next day.  

RIGHT: Olivier disproving the "look good climb good" paradigm with his "SDF" outfit.

Hillary scrambled up onto an adjacent mini-pinnacle to get these shots - we're all psyched about her new camera!

Tough Rentrée (Part II): Vanoise, Taillefer, Ecrins and Belledonne

As I begin a new vacation (the two week Vacances de Toussaint) I am finally ready to concede that the “rentrée”, or back to school period is over.  Thus, I bring to you at last, my resume of the activities that made the rentrée “tough”. 

1. Quick Turn Around: Vanoise

Arriving back in France after the lovely summer in the Northeast, I was greeted by dear friend Corinne who had come to her motherland (her mother being French) to spend a few weeks. Shortly after touch down, Corinne, Ian and I headed out for a grand adventure in the Vanoise, a National Park a few hours northeast of Grenoble.   None of us had ever been there before, and found it to be a veritable playground for hiking, with gorgeous views in every direction, loud snoring every night, and marmots in every hidey-hole.

 

 Throughout the duration of her stay, I hoped that I would be able to convince Corinne to move to Grenoble and live with us forever.   Alas, despite the beautiful landscape, delicious cheeses and unrivaled mountain access, she eventually had to move on  (I wonder if this decision was at least in part influenced by 3 days in the fog and rain in the Chartreuse...)
For our final adventure, Corinne and I laid siege on the Bastille by way of via feratta, and shared delicious local beers on the top.  After a 7am tiramisu,  she got on the train bound for the coast, and left a giant hole in the hearts of all Grenoblois, but especially mine and Ian's.

2.  Day in the Sun: Plateau des lacs

The next rentrée adventure was short, sweet and incredibly well documented as it was my first outing with my new camera (having finally conceded that my old, faithful SLR is dead and bought a surprisingly satisfying Canon G12).  

Max, Mica, Emilie and I headed into the Taillefer massif for a day of hiking and lounging in the sun near the Lac Fourchu.   Good food was eaten, headstand contests commenced, and many many blueberries were picked. 

We rounded out the evening by devouring delicious homemade pizzas.  Tough.

The north (descent) side of Barre Noire.

3. Barre Noire (3751m) and a Climb-over 

A few weeks later, Brad convinced me that going to school on Monday with a serious “climbover” was a great idea and tempted me to return to our favorite parking lot for a weekend of alpine climbing. 

We drove to Ailefroide on Saturday, hiked for a few hours and bivvied at the base of the Barre Noire.  Waking up before dawn on Sunday morning, Brad had quite a challenge coaxing me out of my sleeping bag, but eventually a pair of lights winding their way up the screefield below us motivated me enough to pack up camp and begin the ascent of the Pilier Sud (TD-/6a, 650m).   What followed was an exceptionally long, and rewarding day, beginning and ending with headlamps.  The climb, dubbed a “test piece” by the guidebook, challenged us in many ways, and neared the limit of what we, as a rope-team, are currently capable of pulling off in a day with big packs.  It began with a short glacier approach, followed by moderate pitches on increasingly good rock, a tricky chimney, spicy traverses, and cruxes thousands of feet off the ground. 

 As is always the case, arriving at the summit of the route was both an achievement and a reminder that a significant portion of the climb involves getting off the mountain, so we paused only momentarily before beginning a down climb followed by rappels in the direction of the Barre des Ecrins.  Touching down on glacier, we quickly began our traverse and descent of the impressive Glacier Blanc with her yawning crevasses and leaning seracs, trudging steadily into the night until arriving at the faithful Chipie who was waiting patiently to take us home.

4. Aiguilles d'Argentières, Belledonne

The final mountain adventure of the ‘tough rentrée’ was a day long trip to the eastern side of the Belledonne for another alpine rock climb, traversing the Aiguilles d’Argentières (AD/4c, 400m).  All told, this fall has left quite a bit to be desired with very few good weather windows.  Several of Brad’s big projects had to be downscaled to accommodate for relatively short periods of sun, and so we jumped at the opportunity to do a climb in our home massif that we’d been eying in the guidebook for a while.

We left our apartment at 5am on Saturday morning, sharing the streets with dedicated club-goers on the way home.  Arriving, still pre-dawn, at the Col de Glandon, we began a long approach hike, watching the first rays of light hit the massif.  A challenging and painful scree field brought us to the underwhelming base of the route on loose, rotten rock.  The tides turned though, as we hit the ridge and began climbing on solid, beautiful rock over one pinnacle after another. We managed to move efficiently through airy terrain, taking in incredible views and basking in the short-lived sun. 

A down-climbing and rappelling descent brought us down onto one of Belledonne’s last surviving glaciers (crampons obligatoires!).  From there we picked our way through scree and glacial morraine onto the hiking trail and headed back down through the autumn colors as the weather moved in.    

 Once again, faithful Chipie brought us back to Grenoble, this time before nightfall, reminding us how amazing it is to live in a place where is it possible to embark on adventures like these even with marginal weather and lots of work.

Olivier makes a really long video of Hillary's fesses

Last Wednesday night Olivier, Hill and I took part in a post-5pm traverse of the NERON, a choice Grenoble proximity adventure:

http://vimeo.com/52380523

Voie Contamine Grisole - Mont Blanc du Tacul (4248m)

Olivier and I took part in some téléphérique magic this past Saturday, summiting a 4000m peak between the hours of 9am and 3pm. The two of us have done a bunch of skiing and climbing together, but this was our first alpine excursion - as I anticipated things were fast, solid and fun, and I'm definitely looking forward to tackling more projects together. 

Also I've been dropping the ball on the update but Texas-native and Bay Area-local Jono Sanders moved out here a month ago, and the two of us have been on some awesome trips to the Vercors and Ecrins during recent weekends. Check out his blog for some recaps of rock climbing and cultural adventures, not to mention a short film he put together from our trip to the Dibona. 

In the meantime here are some photos from Chamonix this past weekend:

Grand view from the summit: (right to left) Mont Maudit and the Kufner Arête (where Hillary were in summer '11), Mont Blanc, Mont Blanc du Courmayeur, Grand Pilier de l'Angle, and the Aiguilles Blanche et Noire de Peuterey (climbing that ridge from Italy is a bucket list objective!!).

Also today is the day to wish Hillary a Happy Birthday! Tonight we're celebrating chez Jean Mi and Anne -- photos of gourmet cheeseburgers to follow... 

Great summer, followed by "tough" rentrée (Part 1)

With subtle, gentle comments like, "If you don't write a blog post this week, I am taking your name off the blog!" Brad has been reminding me that I am behind on what began as a joint documentation process. His frequent admonishments, in general, have not deterred my steadfast avoidance of writing the mother of all catch-up blog posts.  However, I have finally conceded and am now, months late, stepping up to the plate to overwhelm you, our massive readership, with a picture show....

Now, allow me to take you into my time machine…

1) June 2012 : We ran really far

Coach 

Training run in the Aiguilles Rouges
with views of Mont Blanc 

Those dedicated readers who remember that I ran a race back in May (coming home with a large leg of ham), may also recall that the May race was training for a bigger, tougher race that I corralled Brad into running with me in June.   The big, tough race was the Grand Duc de Chartreuse, which Brad and I completed under the team name « Fast and Late ».   Acting as a loving and supportive teammate, Brad accompanied me to my 6am start time and then hung out waiting for me to finish my 49km (30mi) and 3,500m (11,500ft) of vertical in 7 and a half hours.  He then took the baton, or in this case mini gps tracker, and headed out.  With an astonishingly small amount of training, Brad managed to speed through his 37km (23miles) and 1500m (5000ft) in the blistering afternoon sun.  There were many seriously intense runners and ultrarunners at the event, but we managed to squeak into 4th place in the male-female team category. 

Brad finishes his leg of the race;
I accompany him in the final stretch

Thibaut

2) Chipie makes the epic voyage to the Pyrenees

After school finished for both of us, and after our good friends Caryn and Kyle left, Brad and I hoped into our trusty euro shitbox and drove across France in a day.   The destination: Vallée d’Ossau.  Nestled in the heart of the Pyrenees, a few kilometers from the Spanish border is the wonderful and welcoming Refuge Pombie.  It was there that we found our dear friend Thibaut (and his benevolent boss Karine) lodged us, and we proceed to have our egos knocked down a few notches by Pyrenees climbing grades on the Pic du Midi d'Ossau. 

Refuge Pombie

Highlights from the trip: 

1) After seeing people camped within feet of the road for miles through a series of mountain passes, concluding that people in in the Pyrenees are crazy, and finally realizing that the Tour de France was passing through the next day.

2) Magnificent traverse of the petit and grand pics.

3) Dismissing the clanging of pots and pans intended to alert us we were off route as cow bells and continuing climbing up a ridiculously hard route

4) finding a field of grazing horses

5) completing the botanical tri-fecta : edelweiss, genepi and chardon bleu

6) late night trip to Spain to see a not-so-free free concert

Brad minds the gap

Approaching the Meije from La Berarde

3) We climb the Meije!!!

As our last objective before I heading back to the US, Brad and I joined forces with the Seb and Cédric to traverse the Meije.  

 The Meije has lived large in my dreams since I arrived in France and saw it towering above La Grave and Chazelet (see the photo at the top of the blog).  The traverse of the arêtes has tempted me ever since JeanMi described it enthusiastically as “un truc unvraisonbable” (as far as I know, that is not a word, but is roughly what I recall him saying from back when I barely spoke any French).  And finally, I began to really covet the “Queen” last fall when Tophe and Brad scored an amazing coup bivouacking on the summit.

Arriving au sommet

With the virgin at the summit

With such sustained build up, I jumped at the opportunity to do the traverse dangerously close to the day that I was leaving the country. The instigators of the traverse were Seb (a researcher at the Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine) and Cédric (a botanist for the Parc Nationale des Ecrins) who swore not to have any fun while sampling alpine plants on sunny south faces for their Vertical Ecology scientific research project.

The traverse took us across
 nearly this entire ridge

Weather reports didn't predict favorable summit bivouac conditions, so we spent two nights in the Refuge du Promontoire before our big day.
Leaving at around 5am, we began our long rock climb directly from the hut, climbing into daylight, traversed a hanging glacier and reached the summit around 9:30 in the morning.  
After a short break, we embarked on the next, and no less demanding part of the journey: the traverse of the arêtes. 

The "droigt de dieu" or
"finger of god"
section of the arête

Brad, Seb and Cédric

Never too easy, but never too difficult, this climb took us across what must be one of the most beautiful ridges the Alps has to offer.  There was a little bit of everything--rock, snow, ice, and alpine via ferrata (on the bolted Dent Zigmondy).  It gave us the perfect amount of spice, and a demanding length, but always in the right dose. 
Over the last 9 months, I've had lots of time to question whether or not I want to keep doing this kind of activity. If any doubt lingered in my mind the morning we left for the Meije, it was quickly erased by a climb that, to say the very least, exceeded expectations and renewed my respect and awe for the mountain environment. 


*****stay tuned for part two of "Great Summer, Tough Rentrée", where you'll be introduced to the challenges of restarting a school year in the Alps****