Millesime Grande Cru

Today we climbed Millesime Grande Cru: a rarely climbed route on the Roche Colombe. You can see the Roche Colombe from the valley floor: it is BIG. Big and far away, I should say. The guide book and our friends said 1:30 for the approach, but it took us 1:40 to get to the base of the cliff. Most of the hike was pretty easy: take the trail up from the Pont de l'Alpe, past the huts, Roche Robert and on towards the Grande Lac. Along the way we edged past somewhat menacing looking cows

and flatulent horses, and eventually left the trail to work our way more or less directly uphill to the starting cave. The rock was fabulous over the entire route, with only a little of the usual ledge annoyingness. There was a beautiful section of slabs with runnels in the middle.


Even Chloe, who hates slabs, loved it. I was amazed to see how high the formation is. From the Alpe du Lauzet, it only looks a bit taller than the surrounding peaks because of the perspective, but as you get higher up the route and look around, you realize that you are all of a sudden towering over everything (at least everything nearby, like the Aretes de la Bruyere, and Roche Robert). At one point, I looked across at the red tower to the left and saw a chamois looking back at me inquisitively.

After five hours on the route




we finally topped out, soaked in the 2832 meter (9,200 feet) views for a few minutes,



and then start down the painful descent.

We might have been off route, but ended up in some chossy gullies, flanked by stacks of shattered rock. Later on, we did a little scree skiing,


and ended up getting a bit beaten up. Actually, both of us were in total agony because of all the time in our tight fitting climbing shoes. I could feel blisters forming on the balls of my feet, and both of us crashed and burned a few times in the scree. Chloe definteley had a worse time than I did in that respect! As we were descending, we noticed a PGHM helo circling the Aretes de la Bruyere, and we hoped that it was not for us (The route+approach+descent had taken us considerably longer than expected). By the time we got to the Aulp de Lauzet, every step felt like precise hammer blows were being delivered to each of my toes. The 100m climbing rope was digging into my shoulders, and felt more like steel cables than soft nylon. Ahh, climbing!

Later that night we had an excellent meal at the Auberge de Choucas (babysitter!), but I was barely conscious for most of it.