Good breakfast, then walk into town and take the first bus up to the Grand Bernardino pass. Drop the heavy stuff at the hotel, the off we go to climb the Grande Chenalette via its E ridge (a tour from Dani’s alpine climbing book).
The weather is great (surprisingly cool), so there are plenty of people on the trail until we turn off towards the ridge at a cairn. Up a short bit to the bottom of the route, wait for the couple who arrived a few minutes before us to start, then we start the climbing.
The first few pitches up the sporn to the ridge are on good rock mixed with some short stretches of walking. There are enough bolts to generally be able to follow the route without too much guessing. Our plan to do the longer pitches (there are belays for both 30m and 40m ropes) doesn’t go perfectly, but we get to the ridge reasonably quickly. Up on the ridge we shorten the rope and continue towards the peak. This is mostly scrambling, at times quite exposed. G fails to read the topo correctly and wimps out of the exposed bit across the double towers, but it’s still fun. Shortly before the peak, the ridge broadens and flattens and we hit a blue-white trail. Here we pack away the climbing gear. A few minutes along the blue-white trail and we are at the peak. We do a food break and then head onwards. There is some drama that ends up with us helping a family with small kids down the steep bits of the descent. Onwards we go, back down the trail to the pass and the hotel.
We check in, shower, have a cool drink and some cake, a short nap, then a surprisingly good dinner and off to bed.
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