9 hours of struggle in the massif du Taillefer with Olivier

Two weekends ago Olivier and I had a grand adventure on the NW couloir of the Grand Van, within less than an hour's drive of Grenoble. For more photos and for those looking to work on their French, here is a link to Olivier's account:

http://montagnepourlefun.over-blog.com/2015/03/balade-d-un-samedi-de-basse-pression-au-taillefer.html

Week one of gratuitous vacation: Belledonne!

I complain a lot about French bureaucracy.  I hate submitting papers in triplicate. I hate trying to anticipate which documents, that are not on the official list of documents, I might get asked for at the Prefecture.  And I hate getting sent back and forth and back and forth between different offices in different buildings on different sides of the city.

However, I do not hate French vacations.  Despite my constant struggles with administration and the current possibility that I may not get paid for 40 hours of work I did last year because someone checked the wrong box on my forms back in 2012, I feel that I should not complain (at least not more than I have already).  I should not complain (too much) because just as I managed to surface from underneath an enormous pile of papers to make and grades to enter, I started a two-week school vacation.  It feels a bit gratuitous since we've only been back at school for 4 weeks,  but since France splits itself into 3 zones for vacations, it was our turn to go first, and voilà: vacances! 

Luckily for me, beginning the week without concrete plans has not gotten in the way of my ability to 'profit'  and to renew my affection for one of Grenoble's closest mountain ranges: Belledonne.  I would be lying if I suggested that we had not already 'discovered' skiing in Belledonne.  While he studied abroad back in 2009, Brad brought Thad and me on a multi-day trip up some of the most prominent peaks seen from the city.  We profited again with Sam over Christmas in 2010; with Carrie, Thad, and Brian in 2011; with Sambo and Jesse in 2013 and on and off in between.  However, given our relative obsession with the Ecrins, occasional but fantastic powder in Chartreuse, and  Brad's broken ankle last year, Belledonne had fallen a little by the wayside.

Over the last week, I have been reminded of some of what Belledonne has to offer, exploring new areas, new summits and new views.  Below, there is a smattering of photographs from the week's adventures--ones in which I fell back in love with the massif's steep valleys, endless views, and low parking lots and high summits.

1) Weekend exploring the eastern side of Belledonne from the Basse-Maurienne:
Day one: Col de la Colombière and Col du Merlet with Brad, Thibaut and Christophe

Christophe tops out on the col

François, have I earned French Nationality yet??

Day two: (Almost) Col du Tepey and other minigolf around the valley with Brad and Thibaut

Heroics on the skin track, take one

Heroics on the skin track, take two

Brad enjoys turns earned

A not so heroic moment:
consequences of a white out and flat light

2) "Sick Day": Enjoying a beautiful sunny day while throwing down tons of vertical (6,900 ft) and admiring Mont Blanc, la Grande Casse, la Meije and much more.
Rocher Blanc (2928m) and Col de la Combe Madame with Brad

Plagued by illness, Brad cannot work today

Can't resist a second lap 

3) Girls day out: My first outing "entre filles" while Brad slaved away at the lab.
 Cime de la Jasse (2478m) with Lydia

Lydia shreds the small pocket of still good snow

Happy ladies

A little ski touring for a change

Hill and I were lucky to be invited to our friend Olivier's family house in Briançon last weekend for a couple days of schussing and merriment. The two main things going for us were great people and good weather; less on our side were the lack of snow (this was before the week+ of dumping happened) and instability due to high winds and squirrelly thin snow pack temperature gradients. Also for me it was the first real test of my ankle in ski boots post pin removal.

Strategically speaking I'd say we did a nice job, fully capitalizing on points one and two with fondue and wine, and some quality time hanging out by the fire as well as on the skin track. We also managed to keep dancing with the dragon to a minimum, given that we stuck to slopes well under 30° (there were actually a number of accidents that weekend, so I definitely don't regret taking it easy). And finally, it turns out that doing the backseat noodle through 20° powder is pretty low stress on the old ankle. Mostly I was just psyched to be back out there with Hill and friends with skis on my feet, shuffling around in some spectacular terrain...

Skinning out of the Névache valley, with the Cerces range as backdrop.

Sometimes 15° is all you need.

Traversing slopes below the Grand Arias (2869m). Psyched to come back for the upper couloir in more stable conditions... note the work of the evil W on the textured snow surface. 

Getting blasted at the col.

Enjoying some low angle bangle jangle through the larch trees.

Day 2 with Thibaut and Matthias, skinning up into a cirque to the southeast of Briançon near the Grand Peygu.

Weekend entre mecs in the Aiguilles Rouges

The weather held out for one last weekend in the mountains a week ago, just in time to celebrate Darin's birthday before the first major snow fall of the season. Both days we found ourselves climbing in t-shirts with the wintry mass of Mont Blanc just across the way, savoring the perched view of the massif from the Aiguilles Rouges. The first day was a brand-new-this-year route featuring freshly scrubbed and comfortably bolted rock, while the second was more of a mountain itinerary on the Aiguille de la Persévérance. And persevere we did, hanging in there with a 3-hour approach through an endless scree field, a dropped (and later recovered) nano down jacket, and some minor altitude sickness for Darin. All in all an excellent weekend in the mountains with two longtime friends, who have guided me along my France adventure since 2006. 

Barberine cliff: Voie Piola - TD, 6b

LEFT: Darin leading through the 6b pitch on nicely featured granite.
RIGHT: Topping out the route with troublemakers in tow, Christophe on the left and Darin on the right.


Aiguille de la Persévérance: Arête sud - AD+, 4c

LEFT: Aiguille de la Persévérance (2901 m) with the south ridge in the sun. 

TOP RIGHT: Leading about halfway up the route... que demander de plus?

BOTTOM LEFT: Birthday boy Darin happy to have persevered after all. 

Bro summit, unfortunately not sponsored by Petzl.

Descending with the "Jardin féerique" across the way. Days like we had are perfect for stoking the long-term fires of motivation for Type-II fun... 

The history of the weekend warrior: la route de La Bérarde, Oisans

There are few things that Brad loves more than

- climbing classic and obscure routes in the Ecrins

- creating fancy visuals 

- reading obscure mountain related texts and finding quotations that speak to him

- publishing blog posts

...which is why he labored for hours trying to set me up for success on this blog post.  

Three consecutive weekends of climbing long alpine routes established before 1935? Check!  Eye-catching visuals that geographically situate our latest adventures? Check! Obscure quotation from old-school French alpinist that only a few French people and Alex MacPhail know of? Check! An artfully written blog post? Get with it, Hillary! 

So, here I am to recount the context of some of our latest adventures in the realm moderately radical climbing.  I cannot emphasize enough how much we love the eastern side of the Ecrins and the world's most beautiful parking lot (see climbs on Barre des Ecrins, Pelvoux, Barre Noir, etc).   However, our growing acceptance of 'weekend warrior'  status has led to exploration of some slightly closer adventure terrain, and thus, we've found ourselves three times this fall in the Vallée du Vénéon--on the western side of the the Ecrins.  We've been to the Vénéon before--we visited with Gus, Eileen and Kyle and Caryn-- but as we delve deeper into what the valley has to offer,  our appreciation of it grows and grows--especially as we begin to understand the valley's history.  

What's funny about the Vallée du Vénéon is that while it is over an hour closer to Grenoble by car than Ailefroide, geographically speaking, it is right next door--with only a 4,000m peak separating one valley from the other.  Leaving  Bourg d'Oisans,  the road cuts up the valley into the Ecrins following the glacial blue Vénéon river, climbing  precipitous switchbacks between steep and dramatic valley walls before opening back up onto an alluvial plain near its terminus at La Bérarde.  The road through the Vénéon was constructed in sections between 1881 and 1921 not so much to serve the communities along the way, but rather as a means to access La Bérarde.  Because the valley is so narrow and so inhospitable in winter (the road remains closed after Saint-Christophe-en-Oisans in the winter), agriculture has never been especially successful, and year-round residency has been limited.  Neither the local population nor the automobile tourist were the target audiences for the road, rather, a very specific population served to gain from it's construction:  the very first weekend warriors.  

In his article on La route de La Bérarde in the 1922 Revue de géographie alpine, André Allix points out that from the perspective of the automobile tourist, the road to La Bérarde is 'mediocre'.  From the road, "the tourist barely has the opportunity to admire the sheer cliffs, hanging valleys and scree fields.  The glaciers are rarely visible, and the summits even less so..." precisely because they are too close. "The abrupt difference in altitude that defines the majesty of these peaks also condemns the automobile to drive around in the bottom of a hole."   Long before construction of the road was completed, the Vallée du Vénéon was appreciated for it's unparalleled access to the surrounding mountains.  In 1913, Parc de La Bérarde was named France's first national park (though that qualification was later removed), and local alpine clubs had already set up hostels and huts to accommodate climbers.   The eventual construction of the road to La Bérarde "had no other role than to save the alpinist six useless hours of walking on a herd-path to arrive at the foot of the mountains.  From Grenoble, now in a half-day--everything is right there--allowing the people of the Dauphiné to access, with dignity, the high mountains, rivaling Savoie and Switzerland."**

Today, we are thankful for this history which allows us, like Jacques Boell and the alpinists of the early 20th century, to access the Vénéon and its too-proximate-to-see-from-the-road mountains from Grenoble.  We are also thankful that La Bérarde did not, as originally intended by the local Bridge and Road Authority, turn into a tourist mecca on the scale of "Zermatt et Saint-Moritz". 

**I hope that Monsieur Allix, were he still alive, would forgive my unauthorized translations from his article which was originally published in French

I. Pointe d'Amont (3338m) - Arête nord - III, D, 5.8  

first climbed 1932

Ambiance nordwand above the Glacier Est du Diable.

In the sun at last after a long and snowy ascent up the north ridge.

Descending the regular route of the Aiguille Centrale du Soreiller (3338m).

Early evening light on the Dibona (foreground), with the Tête des Fétoules in the distance (roundish glacier still in the sun). The big daddy on the left in the background is the north face of the Pointe du Vallon des Etages (3564m).

II. Mont Gioberney (3352m) - Arête nord est - PD, II, 45°

first climbed 1873

Sunset from the hut on the Tours de Bonnepierre, the Dôme de Neige des Ecrins, and just barely the Barre (left to right).

With Thibaut strolling up the northeast arête with les Bans (3669m) across the way.

III. Tête des Fétoules (3458m) - Arête ouest - III, D, 5.8

first climbed 1934

Our bivy site at the Lac des Fétoules.

"Du rocher qui fait moyennement rêver" - traversing the Carquois gendarme. 

Hillary on the home stretch of the Tête des Fétoules, after 1500' of climbing with the Vénéon below.

Grépon: Mer de Glace - 850m, 5.9, IV

Just had a long and surreal weekend in Chamonix with Boris, a new friend and climbing partner. For our first outing together he had initially proposed doing the the Bonatti route on the Grand Capucin (up to 5.11+ for a 1000' at altitude), which I politely declined given the lack of hard climbing I've been doing recently. His second proposal, doing the famous east face of the Grépon, all in mountain boots and with a bivy in the middle of route, sounded perfect. First done in 1911, the route represents the first 5.9 climb in the Mont Blanc massif. Like everybody else, I was absolutely blown away by the first ascentionists' ability to find a doable line up such a large face and then to rally for the famous "Knubel crack" on the last pitch. The combination of near-perfect rock, spectacular setting and a steadily building crescendo of difficulty make this one of the most satisfying climbs I've done yet.  

LEFT and RIGHT: Sunset views from the bivy. I can only imagine the damage Hillary would have done up there with her fancy camera and photographic eye. In the middle of the second photo, you can see the Aiguille du Moine (3412 m) that we climbed a couple weeks ago on via the right hand ridge.

Several pitches below the summit, with the Drus, Aiguille Verte, Droites and Courtes demanding respect across the way.

LEFT: Boris getting it done "en grosses" in one of many 4c (5.6/5.7?) chimney pitches.

RIGHT: Renoncule des glaciers >3400 m, au rendez vous.

LEFT: The famous "Vièrge" of the Grépon, serving as both belay and rappel anchor. 

RIGHT: A view down the Nantillons glacier, which we would descend but not fast enough to catch the last tram back to the Chamonix.