Frogs Explore Summits

2 days - 1 night - MtBlanc Massif- France - 7 July 2018 / Start at Argentiere Le Tour / Follow the path until Refuge Albert 1er (2,706 m) / Night at Refuge / Easy and long scramble up the glacier du Tour until the base of Forbes Ridge (3,200m) / Climb up the 53° snow slope until the rocky ridge / BEAUTIFUL progression on the arete then summit / Climb and abseil down West ridge until upper glacier de l'Epaule / Back to the hut and the car

Time has come to head back into the hill to tick a classic line straight across "La Sainte Victoire", 10pitches over 400m of beautiful limestone. Never too hard, always pleasant with 4pitches of absolute beauty and a MYTHIC final corner😥
Friends and nuts required, get ready for "LE GRAND PARCOURS"

Clément, Alastair, Gaston Did I mentioned this line was opened by Amy?! Yep, the same climber that opened THE couloir leading to Aguja Guillaumet in Patagonia😇

https://www.camptocamp.org/routes/54238/fr/sainte-victoire-le-signal-le-grand-parcours

View over the Sialouze glacier with Mount Viso on the background

Finally we headed back into higher hills to enjoy an unexpected weather window, offering us a last opportunity in this emerging autumn. Glad to have had the chance to stride across this line in Massif des Ecrins!

"Sialouze Ridge Traverse" is a beautiful classic alpine route following a sweet skyline.

It's been 5 years since my first visit in the Pelvoux area; and boy, what a wonder!!!
If only the Sialouze glacier was still in good shape... Gosh it's hard to witness the effect of global warming on our mountains...

All the pictures are here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1011199235701040.1073741845.748551408632492&type=1&l=a7e6d643ac

Few weeks ago Clem and PJ got 3 beautiful sunny days to enjoy Bastille day doing what is best with such conditions: Mountaineering!
That was a perfect opportunity to tackle a legendary traverse in Ecrins range; and mate ... What a nice alpine route and 3 days full on!
Hope you all enjoyed your Bastille day as well ?!

3 days - 2 nights - Ecrin Massif- France - 14 July 2017 / Start at La Grave (1,425m) / Enjoy the ride in a gondola until 2,414m where you follow the path up the Enfetchores (PD 3b) / Scramble until Breche de La Meije (3,357m) / Abseil down / Night at Refuge du Promontoire (3,092m) / Wake up at 3:30... and climb up until Summit of Grand Pic de la Meije (3,983m D- 4a IV) / Celebration and pictures with the statue / Start the Arete Traverse by abseiling down / Get around Zsigmondy teeth climbing up the impressive breach / Follow the ridge until God's finger / Abseil down until Glacier du Trrebuchet and / Night ar Refuge de l'aigle (3,400m) / Loooonng way down the valley back to car parc! What an amazing ride!

3 days - 2 nights - Ecrin Massif- France - 14 July 2017 / Start at La Grave (1,425m) / Enjoy the ride in a gondola until 2,414m where you follow the path up the Enfetchores (PD 3b) / Scramble until Breche de La Meije (3,357m) / Abseil down / Night at Refuge du Promontoire (3,092m) / Wake up at 3:30... and climb up until Summit of Grand Pic de la Meije (3,983m D- 4a IV) / Celebration and pictures with the statue / Start the Arete Traverse by abseiling down / Get around Zsigmondy teeth climbing up the impressive breach / Follow the ridge until God's finger / Abseil down until Glacier du Trrebuchet and / Night ar Refuge de l'aigle (3,400m) / Loooonng way down the valley back to car parc! What an amazing ride!

2 days - 1 night - Ecrin Massif- France - 20 May 2017 / Start at La Berarde (1,727 m) / Follow the path in Vallon des Etancons until glacier de Bonne Pierre / Scramble in deep snow and follow cable until col des Ecrins (3,367m) / Easy ski down glacier blanc / Night at Refuge des Ecrins (3,161m) / Wake up late... and skin up glacier blanc / Climb the easy N face until Dome des Ecrins (4,015m) Celebrations!! / Ski down until col des Ecrins / Abseil down until head of glacier / Ski down until 2,100m / Walk back to La Berarde

**** Ascent of the majestic East Ridge of Cerró Grande **** 24 Feb 2017

Following 3 unplanned sunny days, we decided it was time to head back for a new adventure in the massif. Our rock skills aren't at the level for the area, therefore we focused our energy on a majestic snow and ice ridge to summit Cerró Grande at 2,751m. Views from the top is said to be amazing on all El Chaltén range and moreover on Hielo Continental, time to see it by ourselves!
Pictures available HERE: https://www.facebook.com/748551408632492/photos/?tab=album&album_id=823390681148564

Day1 - Late start and short afternoon walk allowed us to reach the bivvy Arroyo Solo on the side of Laguna Torre with majestic view on Cerró Torre and glacier Grande. Main challenge of the day is crossing of the river using flying fox, without a pulley it does require arms strength! Clém is feeling sick and weather deteriorate, we fall asleep pretty early.

Day2 - No stress, we are on holidays! Thus leaving camp at 11am, we quickly move away from marked tracks to attack the climb of scree slope on the moraine side. This allows us to gain over 1,200m altitude and to reach, with glacier equipment, the Paso Túnel (1,940m). Clém is fully recovered and we are pretty excited by the surrounding environment! A quick recco at the base of Cerró Grande confirms that it is a nice piece of mountaineering and that a good overnight freeze would be welcome to safely progress.
Our tent stayed in the valley, the goal being to bivvy few hours; a bergschrund appears the best spot to protect from cold wind. We spend over 1hour terracing a nice comfy spot before dusk and cold settle. Protected from the wind by our ice rim, we are still exposed to the sky and hopefully as predicted it didn't rain that night!

Day3 - Summit day! Wake up at 3am, it take us a staggering 1:30 to get fully ready... Wind is stronger than expected and by the time we reached the 1st 55° slope, wind blast are strongly challenging our balance. By 6:30am before starting the ridge section, element are really violent and safe decision is taken: we go down in the last crevasse to wait protected from the wild wind.... LONG and extremely COLD wait that makes us wonder "What the f*** are we doing here"... Seeing the light of the town in the far background make me wish for a cosy warm bed....
Finally once sun set and the wind ease, Clem convinces me to give a second go at 8am. Full on energy we make a continuous push without break and eventually reach summit by 9:30am (2,751m) 😀 Staggering views are our reward; nothing is as beautiful as the huge Hielo Continental surrounded by majestic peaks! Pleasure is of short duration as we have to head down before ice transform in a snowy dangerous element. The last 100m traverse is the pinnacle of the climb with an exposure over 2,000m on a razor blade ridge: mind blowing😨 Wind is still strong and the rope between us is drawing ellipse in the sky, pushed by upfront continuous blast.
By the time we reached back the crevasse that welcomed us earlier, we are joined by a party of 2 Argentinians on their way up, cool mates and incredible meeting here! Last bergschrund is pretty wide open and requests and un-academic jump. Relieved to be on a safe and easy glacier, end of the day is an easy down climb with regular over the shoulder look at this amazing line we just climbed.
We reach early our tent still on the side of Laguna Torre. Later that evening Kim and Daniel shared the spot with us on their way back from a successful ascent of Cerró Torre... Amazing performance at another level!

Day4 - Quick trip back in the valley to reach El Chaltén before the bad weather settle.