In the week before Christmas we arrived in Vallouise, in the heart of the Ecrins Massif in the French Alps. An 11 hour drive from the UK - 17 if you live that little bit further north!
The first dump of snow in Vallouise
Ailefroide - Clapouse a Gauche - WI3
The first objective of our trip, a short WI3 icefall an hour or so further up the valley from Ailefroide named Clapouse a Gauche.
Snow conditions meant we could walk
Snowchains - this winters must have accessory
Les Orres - Dancing Fall - WI5+
The following day we headed southwards towards the small French Ski resort of Les Orres.
Recent avalanche debris - this lot had poured over several popular ice routes
Rich on the first pitch of Dancing Fall
Chris Jakeman on Pitch Two of Dancing Fall
The final pitch looked like the real prize. A large cigar of vertical ice plunging down the short rock band near the top.
Rich on the final Cigar Pitch of Dancing Fall
For 15 or 20 feet I battled upwards, getting steadily wetter....another 5 feet or so and I would be past the worst of the cascading water. But I was rapidly becoming drenched....I had to admit defeat and retreat.
Avalanches and more avalanches
The following day we decided to head on our second sortie up into Ailefroide, this time on ski, and this time to look at Clapouse a Droite, the WI4 line we had not had time to do on our first foray into this high valley.
It was ominously warm as we left the car and started skinning up the road towards Ailefroide.......it would not have been an exaggeration to say that we witnessed avalanches and serious sluffs of snow all around us every 4-5 minutes.......The snow was heavy and sticking to our skins as we made our way further up the valley, the avalanches continuing around us. Decision time. Would I walk up that slope I thought. Not in a million years, so climbing underneath it seemed equally fool hardy. We ate our lunch and skied back.
Dry Tooling - L'Argentiere & La Vachette
From there the weather went down hill, pouring rain dampening everything including the spirits a little but we were determined to keep climbing. Dry tooling was the only answer.
Someone not new to Dry Tooling is Tooled Up Mixed Master Andy Turner. Andy dispatched everything with clinical perfection but even he looked as though inspiration was lacking a little as the rain poured off the front of his visor
A day later, tools slightly blunter and arms slightly stretched we headed past Briancon towards La Vachette and to a relatively new Dry Tooling venue high above the Nevache road.
Up to date information on icefall conditions in and around the Ecrins massif can be found on www.icefall.com
