Tête de la Grisonnière--or, Vive les Vacances! 

Tête de la Grisonnière:
admiring our tracks from La Mure

While Brad slaved away in the lab, Olivier (who apparently rarely has to work), Jono (who will soon be concluding his perma-vacation) and I took advantage of beautiful weather and good snow coverage to take a ski day down near the Taillefer.

View to the south: looking at the Devoluy's impressive Obiou

  


  







While the view was incredible, initially, the snow was disappointing. The micro-climate effect was present, meaning that 35 minutes south of Sunday and Monday's abundant Chartreusian powder, no new snow had fallen. 

Jono(bottom right), slogs up the last
25 minutes of the climb

Le Vieux Bouquetin charges

We finally gave up on the skinning, and Olivier, le vieux bouqetin, led the charge up the final pitches of the climb, where the snow had two layers of crust, and a small powder layer in between--perfect for slippery skinning.

Happy to be at the top

 Finally arriving at the top, sweaty and tired, we enjoyed a wind-free sunny day, taking an hour long lunch break--a time frame that would prove beneficial for the snow on the descent.

After tea, coffee, oranges, cookies, pizza, calzone, cheese, dried fruit, chocolate and sun-tanning, we pulled off our skins, tightened our boots, and pointed our skis downhill.

Lucky Luke

We were thrilled with what we found: the crust that had so frustrated us for the climb had softened in the sun, revealing a mix of consolidated powder and spring-like corn. The turns were excellent, as evidenced by Jono's consistently joyful whooping and yelling.

I remember once, Nancy recounted a story from Buke's childhood.  She had asked him what his favorite emotion was.  She was taken off guard by his response: relief.   Since then, I have thought a lot about what I might count as my favorite emotion, most often, I settle on pleasantly surprised.  Lucky for me, yesterday's tour embodied exactly that.  After a long, tough montée, through crust and slippery snow, a descent of fun turns through great snow--VERY pleasantly surprising.

Pleasant Suprise.

LE MONT CHARVIN - HAUTE SAVOIE

        This past weekend Hillary and I headed to Annecy to spend a night with my host-parents (from 2006!) followed by a day out skiing with Darin and Christophe. We let Darin choose the itinerary and he took us to the site of the first ski tour I did with Christophe, the Mont Charvin. During the return trip I found the skin track still to be steep enough to cause pucker factor, and the sculpted summit ridge still felt like it should glaciated and way up high in the Mont Blanc range despite its modest altitude and the occasional tuft of grass poking through. All in all a beautiful day out and great to reconnect with our friends from the north. 

Smile, it's a beautiful day in the Alps.

CHARTREUSE POW

         The low-lying Chartreuse have been getting pummeled with powder like nowhere else in the region, and locals are calling this the best winter in thirty years. Hillary and I weren't planning to ski on Sunday until we found ourself in the midst of 2m snow banks on the drive home. The ensuing cold smoke was so good that we couldn't resist a dawn patrol the next morning with Olivier (dressed to play) and Jono. 

PIC DE BURE - Dévoluy Massif

          Cedric gave Olivier and I a tour of what he refers to as the most beautiful country in the world,  the Hautes-Alpes region surrounding the small city of Gap. While it's hard to say for sure if he's right, sun and powder sure are persuasive. The beginning of our day was nonetheless pretty rocky -- Olivier and I got up at 5am in Grenoble, housed eggs, bacon and coffee and then noticed a latenight text message pushing back our rendez vous -- back to sleep! Then we spent a half an hour without cell service at the trailhead blasting Nique Ta Mère and eagerly waiting for Cedric to roll up only to realize that we were supposed to have meet down in the valley rather than at the trailhead. Then the snow was crusty and wind schralped and Olivier nearly threw a tantrum. In the end though, Cedric made the right call and we got around to appreciating summit views and untracked snow.

On the summit plateau, which includes an astrophysics observatory.

Looking back on our tracks down the Combe d'Aurouze. Olivier was quite pleased with his split board as you can see.

Hillary is Back: ski touring above the Chazelet  

We were thinking of blizzard-bound New Englanders yesterday and thought these sun-filled images might be appreciated. Before celebrating our friend Mathilde's birthday last night at François' family's place above la Grave, Hill and I headed up to ski for the day before bad weather and hangovers rolled in this morning. I can rarely think of a mellow tour feeling so satisfying, for three reasons: 1) Hill was finally healthy and we were able to get out for the first time together in weeks 2) we expected a combination of wind scoured and wind slabed snow and in the end were able to find sheltered goods and 3) skiing through sun-drenched terrain and turning around to the see the north face of the Meije is awesome. As we eyed the higher summits in all directions, I think we both started regaining the motivation for tackling big days out together. Good thing the ski season is still young!

Small Missions...

All of the lights: sunrise view of downtown Grenoble from the Moucherotte (1901m).

Jono and Cedric in the southern Ecrins.

Meanwhile, Hillary rides out the flu and does not partake in small missions. 

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.