Tina, Scott and I have had a busy week climbing and mountaineering finding good conditions and having the odd frustrating moment due to rockfall!
On Sunday we went to the Refuge Robert Blanc in the Beaufortain. The Guardian at this hut is excellent and we had a very enjoyable meal with him before an early start the next day when we climbed the Petite Aiguille des Glaciers (3468m). There had been fresh avalanches the day before. This may be an issue for the next few weeks in the Alps. The glacier was in excellent condition.
We decided to go to Les Ecrins for the next four days as the weather forecast was excellent for this area and there is a little less snow. Therefore we drove on Tuesday towards La Berarde but unfortunately could not get up the final section of the road due to a large scale rockfall the day before making the road unpassable. After a quick discussion we headed to Ailefroide for some rock climbing before overnighting in the valley.
After breakfast on Wednesday morning we climbed in the valley before making the approach to the Refuge du Sele where we got a very warm welcome. The next morning we climbed the South Ridge route to the summit of L’Ailefroide Orientale (3847m) before descending the South West Flank Route.
The South Ridge route on the L’Ailefroide is hard to find in the middle section when snow covered (as it is just now). The glacier section of the South West Flank is threatened by a serac for a good section of it (which is not mentioned in the British climbing guide) and this should be thought about carefully if deciding to do this route.
Yesterday we climbed one of the large granite routes in the valley, Spit on Cup. This newly bolted route can be found in the latest edition of the climbing guide.
There are more photos on the facebook page.
