Beaux Quartiers

Today, thanks to generous babysitting by the entire chalet crew, Chloe and I were able to do a fabulous climb on the Aiguillette de Lauzet. The "Petite" Aiguillette is an impressive formation that overlooks the road to Lautaret, and Beaux Quartiers is supposed to be one of the best routes up it. At 300 meters and a whole lot of pitches, it is a fairly serious climb. I was so cold for the first 5.10d pitch that I could barely feel my fingers! After pitch two, we got stuck behind some other climbers, who we had to wait for for the majority of the climb. They eventually bailed after the steep 6a+ chimney, but we continued on with the last three pitches and topped it out.

On the walkoff, we saw a troupe of baby chamois bounding up and down rock faces.

as well as the "daddy", who seemed unimpressed by us.

We were unsure of whether he would charge us to protect the young'uns, so we gingerly walked by him.

When we were about two thirds of the way down from the walkoff, we noticed the other party on the climb, who had managed to arrive in some gully and were just now walking back to the base of the climb to get their stuff. It looked like maybe they had gotten lost in the rappels (which is another reason to not rap off, given the choice of a walkoff!).

Anyway, it was an excellent climb, and thanks again to the babysitters!!!