Ecrins

We spent the weekend in the Ecrins hiking with past and present Grenoble outstation people (and some others). After longer delays than usual, even for a large group, we did the fairly flat hike in to the refuge Lavey (~177m down, 416m up,) run by the CAF Grenoble.



Since Chlo and I were planning on leaving the next day, we wanted to get extra hiking in, so we ditched our packs at the refuge and walked up to lac des Bèches (2417m, 600m up):




Despite our appalling state of fitness, we did this in 1:05, which is not too bad...

The food was much better than what they serve at Soreiller. The accomomdations, however, were an entirely different story...

The refuge had been overbooked, so all 19 of us were in a very very very small room. There were 2 banks of 10 one meter wide bunk beds with 1 cm gaps (= no gap!) in between them. After everyone had packed themselves into the room, it quickly became a sweat lodge. "Sweat lodge" is a little misleading, however, because the similarity stopped at the "sweat" part. What it lacked in sprituality and smokiness, it more than made up for in dampness, heat, the smell of sweat and farts, and the rumbles, buzzes and whines of snores. If you've never experienced it, the sensation of waking up to some strangers warm breath blowing over your face at 3 AM is delightful. Neither Chloe nor I slept very much that night.



The next day we went to le lac des Rouies (2720m, 920m up). The trail climbs steadily up as you walk south along the valley towards the olan. Waterfalls come down from glaciers on the right, and after crossing another picturesque stone bridge, we began to trend southeast, until we started climbing the fairly steep final 600m to the lake. We had left the refuge a bit earlier than the rest of the group, and we got up to the lake in around 2:15, after which we found a nice bench-like rock to eat on. Our lunch, while lacking the bottles of german beer and french wine that the others enjoyed, had the important property of being 5 times lighter than theirs. And after all, bread, comte de montagne, chocolate chip cookies and apples is not too bad of a lunch. We took in the sun for a bit while we waited for the others:




who arrived and began cracking open the beers:


(no I did not photoshop myself in from the previous pic).


In order to get down with enought time to boulder, we left earlier again. Some of the others went on to get up to the Col, I think. On the way down, we rounded a bend and were surprised by a pack of murderous attack sheep:




when you look at their stupid eyes, I think its hard not to feel a little guilty about the cruel pragmatism of our species. Here is an animal that has been bred for the taste and volume of its flesh, its ability to make us clothes with its hair, and its ineffective brain... all for our benefit.

we saw three or four fat little marmots fleeing into their burrows as we continued, and I was reminded of an entertaining story I had read a while ago.


looking back towards the olan



we got back to the hut, borrowed a topo and pad, and did a few problems:




which were ok, but not wonderful, especially given all the sheep shit everywhere.

We got our stuff together, and started walking out, when we discovered this gem:






which had many cool looking lines, but the most aesthetic is on the southeast corner,
just to the left of the arete. I moved some of the ankle breaking rocks at the base (replacing them with ankle trapping holes), and got to work. It was a much trickier problem than first appearances gave, but after an hour of tries, I finally did the leg shaking topout. Each move required some special trickiness, and the final sequence was: get the middle of the starting jug with the right hand, step right foot up to mini ledge on the right of the arete, left foot onto micro nubbin on left of arete, long reach out left to crappy pocket:




sack up, bump left up to jug, match, right up to sloper, left foot up past the
pocket, up to the jug, rock over, stop legs from shaking, stand up, dont fall off, walk away shaking.

not a "hard" problem, but mental without a pad and all the rocks!


we then stumbled down the rest of the trail and up the painful hill on the other side of the river, and drove home in a haze.