Climbing in the Écrins range

Text and pictures © 2004-2008 Guillaume Dargaud
Last updated on 2008/04/04

"Welcome to the employee rock-climbing seminar. You'll learn valuable teamwork skills by doing dangerous things unrelated to your jobs."    — Dilbert (1997/8/3).

Massif des Ecrins

Above: Panorama of the Ecrins Range from Roc Noir de Combeynot, above the Lautaret pass. From left to right: Briançon down in the Guisane valley, the Pelvoux (3943m), la Barre des Ecrins (4102m), la Meije, Villar d'Arene down in the Romanche Valley, the Lautaret pass, Italy in the background and the ridge of the Roc Noir de Combeynot.

Left: Barre des Ecrins (4102m) seen from Roc Noir de Combeynot in the morning.

Although the Ecrins Range has only one 4000m peak, it has several classic mountain climbing worthy goals. The highest, la Barre des Ecrins is often just 'climbed' (walked would be a better term) to its fake snow summit dubbed 'Le dôme des Écrins'. The true summit lies a short rockwall above. Via its south face (pictures below), it offers a gigantic 2000m wall with a few classic routes with moderate 5c rock climbing.

Left: La Grande Ruine (3765m) seen from Roc Noir de Combeynot in the morning.

Right: La Barre des Ecrins seen from Roc Noir de Combeynot, rising above the evening fog.

Left: Pic Gaspard and La Meije seen from Roc Noir de Combeynot in the evening.

La Meije, is one of the summit with most possibilities: a colorful history of first ascents, a huge south face with more than 20 pitches of bolted 6b above 3500m, a long classic ridge traverse, ice to mixed spring couloirs, various moderate to extreme skiing in the winter, lots of frozen waterfalls at its very bottom and lots more.

Left: Multiple summit ridges towards the Italian border in the morning.

One of the reasons we moved to Briançon was the proximity with Italy, only about 10km away, with a pass open year-round. Although usually it's the italians who come here, fleeing the mass of fog of the Padania. Quite different from the Turinese climate, Briançon is supposedly the sunniest city in France.

Climbing the Ailefroide slabs

Above: Jenny on La Vie Devant Soi (TD+), Palavar-Les-Flots, dalles d'Ailefroide.

Above: Jenny on La Vie Devant Soi (TD+), Palavar-Les-Flots, dalles d'Ailefroide.

Above: Vincent training in plastic boots on La Vie Devant Soi, TD+, Palavar-Les-Flots, dalles d'Ailefroide. Guaranteed repeat falls on those smooth slabs.

Ailefroide offers a different kind of climbing: granite ! But climbers in need of crack will be at a loss there as it's all slab. Trad gear is mostly useless as the routes are well bolted. I need my fix of crack but the proper place to go is quite far away...

Above: 'Orage d'etoile', great rock, good pro, quick climbing.

Above: 'Snoopy', one of the most classic of all the Ailefroide slabs.

Above: 'Marche au supplice', follow numerous improbable traverses to stay on good rock among the many ledges and roofs.

Right: One of the several traverse pitches on 'Marche au supplice', 6c.

Right: Ailefroide seen from the village. It seems logical that the climbing areas are named the same way as the village just below, but it's confusing that some are actually right there at the base of Mt Pelvoux (main summit on the image), while Mt Ailefroide is much farther up the valley. Routes here are famous for a bunch of reasons: it's one of the few granite crags in France, and it's all slab, although the most classic route of all is the 'fissure d'Ailefroide', a century old chimney testpiece.

Right: Normal descent route from the traverse of Mt Pelvoux, shortly before reaching the ground.

Left: River coming down from the Ailefroide valley in autumn (using HDR techniques).

Right: Resting on the field after running up two long routes in an afternoon. No more than 15 minutes per pitch.

Glacier Noir

Left: Soleil Glacial, Glacier Noir, Ecrins.

Right: Summit of Soleil Glacial, with view on Glacier Noir, Ecrins.

The two main glaciers coming down the Barre des Ecrins are in sharp contrast: one is a pile of rock with hardly any ice visible and the other a more expected snow and crevasse field. The Glacier Noir offers a prime selection of top grade routes in a true alpine setting, but with moderate approaches and usually good weather.

Left: Ice tube carrying water within the Glacier Noir.

Above: Panorama of the Pelvoux, with Le Pré de Mme Carle in the lower left. Massif des Ecrins.

Above: Panorama of the Glacier Noir seen from Aurore Nucléaire (Pic Sans Nom) assembled from 4 21mm shots. Ecrins. From Left to right: Col de la Temple, Pic Coolidge, Barre des Ecrins (south face), barre noire, pic de neige Cordier.

Left: Upper Glacier Noir seen from Aurore Nucléaire, Pic Sans Nom, massif des Ecrins.

Right: Jenny backlighted on the summit of Aurore Nucléaire, Pic Sans Nom, massif des Ecrins.

Aurore Nucléaire is known as 'the classic hard alpine route' round here. I was a little disappointed by it: the last bit of the approach is exposed to lots of rockfalls from the nearby gully, the guy on the party before us fell on the first few wet meters and had to be helicoptered off, the climbing is not sustained (one hard move every once in a while with plenty of easy stuff), there are a lot of rocks just laying about for the rope to push them off...

Glacier Blanc

Above: Panorama of the Glacier Blanc, Ecrins.

Left: Refuge du glacier blanc with the Pelvoux in the background.

Right: A frendly marmot on the trail to the Glacier Blanc.

Sialouze

Left: Refuge du Sélé, Massif des Ecrins.

Right: Glacier du Coup de Sabre, with Sélé glacier in the back, Massif des Ecrins

Sialouze is a large face on the other side of the Pic Sans Nom which hosts Aurore Nucléaire on its other side. Although the approach is much longer, the rock quality is second to none as shown by the quantity of people spread on the various routes. We walked from the parking lot in under 4 hours while all the others stayed at the mountain hut.

Left: Excellent climbing on the South face of Sialouze, massif des Ecrins.

Right: High up Attaque à main armée, Sialouze, Massif des Ecrins.

Left: High up Attaque à main armée, Sialouze, Massif des Ecrins.

Right: Attaque à main armée on the Sialouze slab, Massif des Ecrins.

Left: Rappelling off Sialouze, with Sélé glacier in the back, Massif des Ecrins.

West face of La Meije (3983m)

Right: The crux section of the Enfetchores approach to the Meije, as used when coming up from La Grave.

Left: Jenny on the crux section of the Enfetchores ridge, good rock but exposed 4th class climbing.

Right: On the Meije glacier, below the north face of La Meije. One of the ice gully actually looks to be in decent conditions.

Left: Reaching the Promontoire hut can be done easily from the very isolated village of La Bérarde, or from La Grave. In this case you need to avoid getting lost on the Enfetchores ridge, negotiate the crevasses of the Meije glacier and then sweat it off the poor rock leading to and back down the other side of the pass, from where this image is taken. The west face is clearly visible, leading to the 'Grand Doigt' above, but the classic route is the traverse taking the ridge visible on the right side of the mountain.

Right: A vertical panorama taken on 'Nous partirons dans l'ivresse' an excellent an gently rated route on the west face of La Meije: 12 pitches of 5+/6a.

Left: A view on the west face of La Meije, with a bunch of very tiny climbers on the very classic traverse.

Above: 360° panorama taken from the helipad of the Promontoire refuge, below the south face of La Meije.

Left: End of the 2nd pitch of 'La Reine de la Nuit' at the Duhamel Pyramid below La Meije.

Right: 6c traverse on 'La Reine de la Nuit'.

Left: Jenny on the good route La Reine de la Nuit, with the pass known as La Brèche de la Meije, a short but ugly and very much used pass of loose dusty rock, in the back.

Right: Jenny on the summit of the Duhamel Pyramid, with the Grand Doigt and the real summit of La Meije behind.

Right: A view on the normal route of the Meije traverse, as seen from the summit of the Duhamel pyramid, a much lower sub-summit. Two climbers can actually be (barely) seen retreating off the route.

Right: A view on the Etançon valley and the Replat (3442m) from the higher La Meije.

Right: Coming down the Etançon glacier with still a long way to go down the Etançon valley until reaching the tiny outpost of La Bérarde. We got there at 21:00, hungry and without a ride back to the car. We were lucky to (1) find a restaurant still open and (2) figure out that the waiter was riding back in the same direction as ourselves 15 minutes later. The entire village is actually off limits 6 months a year due to avalanches on the road. The summits on the left are the Pavé (3823m), Grande Ruine (3765m) and Pic Nord des Cavales (3362m).

Right: The impressive south face of La Meije, with the Promontoire Hut on the outcrop dominating the middle of the image. Even though it's september and quite late in the season, there's still water running down the south face. The west face is on the left.

Goulotte Emeraude at Glacier Noir

Right: Start of the Emeraude de Droite gully.

Left: Upper part of the Glacier Noir, under the Ailefroide. There are several things called such: this mountain, the glacier on the other side, the tiny summer village down in the valley and the rock slabs above it.

Right: Jerry leading the first delicate pitch of the Emeraude gully. And Agostino is above tossing ice on us from the crux move. It really was 'the international expedition on the Emeraude': 4 people, 3 countries.

Left: Jerry walking on the glacier. Agostino was on skis while Vincent and I were on snowshoes.

Right: In the middle of the Emeraude gully after the end of the difficulty. From there you traverse 100m and then follow a snow slope to the top. This image shows most of the Glacier noir with the prominent Barre des Ecrins smack in the middle, partly sheltered by Peak Coolidge. The Pelvoux starts on the far right.

Left: Jerry finishing the 2nd steep pitch of the gully. We found the route in good conditions, the snow was hard on the easier sections and the ice good but thin. At this belay I tried to place 2 screws without success, hitting the rock after a few cm each time, finally settling on using a sling around a rock sticking out of the ice.

Right: Spindrift raining down on us as we finish the upper and easier section of the route.

Right: Jerry on the summit of the Emeraude gully. From the top of the gully, still a long way from the true summit of Ailefroide, two rappels take you to the Ailefroide glacier and a short climb up shit rock to the Glacier Noir pass. There 400m down a 50° slope I wish I'd had my skis for and we are back to the packs.

Right: Vincent below the start of the right Emeraude gully (right) while the tiny dot on the left is Jerry finishing his descent off the Glacier Noir couloir. The left Emeraude is in the center.

Right: Heading back down.

Left: On the glacier noir, under the Pelvoux.

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