L'Olan 3564m

Still too intimidated to try to recap a month-long trip to the US in August, I bring you, instead, a few photos from an adventure last weekend in the Ecrins.

One week after the infamous French 'rentrée', when all French people return to their regular lives after at least a month of vacation, and still manage to have plenty to complain about, Brad and I also found it difficult to leave the summer behind.  After a careful study of the weather forecast (at least 5 times a day from several different sources) we deduced that, in order to pursue our extended goal of climbing Les 100 Plus Belles Courses in the Ecrins, we'd have to consolidate our weekend outing into Friday night and Saturday--when it would start raining in the valley and snowing on the peaks. We made it out of Grenoble just before the rush hour traffic, arriving in Valgaudemar, a beautiful valley with which I was previously unacquainted, around 6pm.  After a week of 6-7 hour nights, we had to dig deep into the energy recesses to find the motivation for the 1200m climb up to our bivouac near the refuge.  Digging still deeper, we set our alarms for a 4am wake up, and settled into our bivy sacs with a bright moon illuminating the towering south face of the Olan behind us, and sheep bells echoing across the unlikely perched plateau.

Four o'clock came quickly, and in the chill of the early morning, I struggled with the idea of getting out of my sleeping bag.  However, the cold was short-lived problem, and we quickly warmed up as we made our way up talus and scree, stepped onto the glacier and traversed our way to the base of the Voie Escarra--the regular route up the peak. Looking at the Olan from below, it is hard to believe that there could possibly be a reasonable way to get up it--but following the topo instructions and advice from the hut guardian, we efficiently made our way up the initial step of climbing, across an improbable and walkable ledge in the middle of the face, and then up a leaning couloir to the notch where the real fun began.  Never difficult, the arête leading from the Breche Escarra to the summit of the Olan is airy to say the least.  The quality of the rock is excellent, and were it a few meters off the ground, it would be a piece of cake.  But perched on a narrow ridge with precipitous drops on each side, the traverse was pretty mind-blowing. Once on the summit, we set up a rappel to take us back to the lower part of the ridge, and sunned ourselves while taking in the incredible surroundings. 

On the descent (which followed the same itinerary as the climb), Brad and I enjoyed one of our most efficient downclimbs--which was a big step for the unsure-footed me.
Back down at our bivouac, we refilled on calories and liquid, and were tempted to, rather than make our way back down to the valley, do like the "alpinist" sheep (so described by the hut guardian) who spend several months a year, wandering the alpine landscape in search of green (some with significantly more success than others--see below).

for those climbers wanting to see routes....