Chalais

Attempt number two on the dreaded Chalais montée. To review, it is one of the more difficult climbs in the area, with sections approaching 20% grade, and an average of 11% over 6.7 km (736 meters climbing/2400 feet). Round trip from Fontanil is only 15.7 miles.

This time I had enough time, but got rained on pretty hard in the last km. I was surprised by the number of cars, and it turned out that it was because they were doing some kind of Christiany thing that had to do with Assumption. I peered into the chapel, which is really beautiful, and there was a camera crew inside doing a feature. I found out later that that it made it onto the evening news.



The descent was dicey, and I took my time

Not tremendous power output (avg 213 watts over the hour it took me to get up there form Fontanil). I didn't hit the interval button at the bottom, but assuming it took ~10 minutes to get to Voreppe, I did the climb in ~50 mins or so. On the flats on the way back I was doing sprint intervals for fun -- I can make 750 watts for ... 5 seconds. 456 watts for 30s, and 355 for 1 min. Time for some EPO?

Alex!

Mont Saint Martin

from the soccer field to the Mt St Martin sign in 32:30.... thats about as fast as I can go, I think. I lost my concentration for a second on the descent and bounced off a guardrail. Thankfully, I protected the sensitive steel parts on my bike with my leg

A painting

One of my favorite rooms in the Grenoble Museum holds paintings of scenes from the Grenoble area. One in particular seemed to me to be of several latrge boulders right at the entrance of La Berarde, so I took a picture this time. What do you think?

Tu ris, Maye

Another climb on la Maye... this one turned out to be fairly difficult though, and Chloe and I were on it for a long time! The descent and approach are also much longer than the right flank climbs, so our estimates for how long it would take were way off (sorry, Ian and Stephanie!). Even with an alpine start at 5:30 AM, we were not back in time for lunch. I think we spent ~6:15 on the climb itself.

Pitch 1 is a bit of a slap in the face: A delicate traverse over a cave. Pitch 2 is more delicate 6a/+ traversing. Here is CZ on it:





looking down at the fabulous 6b pitch



5+ before the crux?

The crux 6c slab pitch felt ridiculously hard, but I managed it without any aid or resting. It's a mantle, followed by a very tenuous reach to a diagonal dike of sharp inclusions. Afterwards, it is a blur. The final easy pitch is kind of hard to figure out, and goes over a rock strewn ledge. At one point, the rope pulled a toaster sized rock down, and I watched helplessly as it spun past me, bouncing off of the slabs until it exploded in a cloud of dust 1100 feet below us (just kidding mom! It was a Nerf football, not a block of limestone!). There were beautiful wildflowers on all of the ledges, and the occasional Edelweiss, as well!

We eventually made it to the top, which as staggeringly beautiful views of the Meije, Dome des Ecrins, and other peaks


Next came the knee crushing descent back down to La Berarde, and the windy road back to Grenoble.

All in all, a lot of physical activity for one weekend! At least the approaches to the climb aren't *too* long... probably a couple of thousand feet for both of them.

la Maye

Ian and I climbed De Maye en Endroit. We got a little off route, but had a good time, and blitzed it in just over 4 hours. The crux 6b is a very entertaining overhanging pitch. The slabs higher up are also good, but the rock really seems to improve with elevation. As a result, it might be better to stick to the climbs on the left.

Every climbers dream: a soaking wet granite slab!

Looking down the first slab

After the crux 6b pitch

Us climbing! Taken by CZ

A closeup. This is pitch 3

Further up, with la Berarde in the background






We were back by lunchtime, and after crepes, we brought Zoe to the river to throw rocks and build dams. The raspberries along the river were unfortunately not yet ripe. Chloe and I also scoped out the trail head to the more direct path to the cliff. Finally, it was time to gather wild blueberries for Zoe.

We were also rewarded with beautiful light on the mountains

La Berarde

We took a trip to the very small mountain town of La Berarde this afternoon, for two nights at the CAF refuge


(four adults and two babies in a teeny room -- wheee!)

wandering around the town and environs:




Ian rode up from Grenoble and met us there: A serious ride! Dinner was simple but excellent, and perfect fuel for tomorrows excursion.

A trip to St. Antoine l'Abbeye

There is a particularly interesting and well done mini-museum on perfumes and scents. There are even little atomizers built into the displays. Myrrh turns out to be particularly strong, and was all I could smell for about twenty minutes after sniffing it.

A perfume still:

izoard video

added here

Tomato

Behold the majesty of a tomato plant that have not been watered for two weeks

Stephanie here!

Videos added

To the Galibier road bike and mountain bike posts
road : http://moneycrushing.blogspot.com/2010/07/galibier.html
Mountain bike : http://moneycrushing.blogspot.com/2010/07/mountain-bike-down-from-galibier.html

A panorama

of the view from the front lawn of the Chalet

Col de Granon

I rode the col de Granon today while Chloe was climbing at Roche Maubert with Vero. It was a hell of a slog. Something like 8% minimum grade, 9.5% average for 12km. I think it was the most difficult of the high cols. When I was almost at the top, a car drove by and a window rolled down, followed by cheers of "Allez, Allez!"; France is so awesome for cycling!

Later on, we packed up, got some more crepes at chez Finette, loaded up the car, and drove back to Grenoble. Along the way, we were treated to some beautiful light in the mountains
Aiguillete de Lauzet

Roche Robert, contreforts

Agneaux?

Some guys flying an RC glider near Lautaret


Lauzet

Lautaret

Raining

so we went shopping in Briançon (alpimat) to buy a reverso for Chloe and some guidebooks. We also made a brief foray onto the dog excrement and trash strewn slopes of the fortress. I discovered that someone has bolted the slabs under the citadel walls:



which would have probably upset Vauban.

Later on, I took Zoe for a father-daughter crepe session in Casset, followed by a very cold dip in the nearby lake


Unfortunately, as far as I could tell, The Town of Art and History does not seem to have a real art museum!

GEAR