As a result of Chuck’s enthusiastic promotion of the area a sizeable platoon of the MMC regiment descended into the Ecrins. For the uninitiated the Ecrins has mountaineering routes, sport routes bouldering but what you really come for are the long bolted mountain routes. These can be up to 14 pitches long and rise 500 metres. They are not all directly escapable either and bearing in mind that the area has mountain weather patterns they can be very serious undertakings.

The main contingent arrived over the weekend of 22 June with most arriving on the Friday night where they joined Jiri, Tara, Shane and Julie who were already in residence. On paper the whole business of travelling on the Friday night seemed fine. Ryan Air flight to Turin followed by hire car to Ailefroide. However as sometimes happens with the MMC the best laid plans do not always run true.

The first hint of trouble was when Catherine O’C (who was on an earlier flight to the main party) missed her flight. This it later transpired was down to her going to the wrong airport in the UK! Then she could not get a flight to Turin and so got a flight to Milan. From Milan she then picked up a hire car to rendez-vous with the main party in Turin. This was important as others were dependent upon her hire car for getting from Turin to Ailefroide. Unfortunately there was some mechanical problem with the car which left her stranded by a Peagio under the watchful eye of a couple of unhelpful Carabinieri. Meanwhile her liftees were stuck in Turin trying to help her out with various ultimately futile suggestions and phone calls. Eventually she had to check into a hotel for the night while the stragglers at Turin airport managed to cram themselves into the remaining cars for the ride to Ailefroide.

On the Saturday those who had made it reviewed their circumstances and decided what to do. Chuk and Wendy intended to climb the old favourite Snoopy (TD-) subject to them surmounting the difficulties. The difficulties were indeed surmounted but they were limited by a lack of maillons and so abed off from pitch 8 and then had to prussic back up a stuck rope (a theme that was to be oft repeated over the week).

Meanwhile Nick and Simon tackled La Nocturne (TD+), a route that Nick and Mark W had backed off due to the heat two years earlier. This they climbed without significant difficulty until pitch 7 upon which the line of bolts disappeared. No amount of searching would reveal a further bolt and even a dangerous trad pitch up a manky chimney did not yield anything useful. So for a second time Nick was forced to back off, though having made more progress than before. The descent was marred by a hideous rope faff which saw both Nick and Simon reclaiming a pitch on a belay device to free a stuck rope. Nick went first and when he got down having failed to free it was close to tears.

Having come off slightly earlier than expected they then made themselves useful by getting dinner going, accompanied by enough alcohol to sink a navy. That evening Jim and John Bradshaw turned up. Big Jim was no one’s fool and had eschewed Ryan Air in favour of his £400 Polo with a couple of boats on the roof. By all accounts their journey was less traumatic than some of the fliers.

Sunday was a similar day weather wise, though the forecast was threatening some rain for later in the week. Chuck led Catherine O’C (who had finally made it) up the Poire (D+) without incident.

Nick and Simon went to sector Palaver (sic) and climbed les Predateurs (TD-) and again were down early to cook dinner for everyone. Beatriz demonstrated her pyromaniac tendencies with sticks from the bonfire.

On Monday Chuck and Oscar tackled the Bridge Over the River Kwai, a monster 14 pitcher of a route. This was reported to be fantastic and saw several MMC repeats over the week. The climbing was fine but they go caught in a downpour while doing the 6 ab descent.

Nick and Simon thought it would be nice not to cook for a change but the weather had scotched the appetite for external cooking (though not for food) and a pleasant meal was had at the local restaurant.

On Tuesday Chuck belayed Wendy on a load of single pitch routes and got so bored he managed to read a book at the same time.

Meanwhile Nick and Simon hit the Paroi de la Draye to climb Logique Floue (TD). They had intended to climb Apparatchiks Tripes but the routes were so hard to find that they eventually realised they were on the wrong route. The only really remarkable thing about this route was the abs off which involved one free hanging ab of about 45 metres which was sooo scary. Back at the campsite efforts had been made to prepare a monstrous barbecue. Patrick and Beatriz had gone down the valley to buy about half a cow and a grill. This was set up over a bonfire that loosely conformed with the campsite edict that “Feux petits sont tollerees”.

Catherine O’C had to bolt down her food quickly as she had to go and collect Sonia from some railhead in Italy. This sounds vague but the subsequent confusion and misdirections are a tale too painful to recount, save to say that they eventually got to the campsite at about 4AM.

On Wednesday Simon and Nick, having been inspired by Chuck and Oscar’s enthusiasm, tackled the Kwai which they managed to get up and down in a respectable 8 hours. Chuck climbed some slabby overhanging TD with Sonia and Jim who both fell off it. Jim due to lugging too much lunch with him and Sonia due to only having had 3 hours sleep.

AG and Rachel went up the mountain to climb the Aiguille de Sialouze. This is a serious route in a serious situation and you need to stay in a hut the night before. The climbing they found OK but they were almost benighted due to a stuck ab rope. Fortunately a following team managed to help them out.

On Thursday a small group consisting of Nick, John, Beatriz, Wendy, Sarah and Patrick decided to do a bit of mountaineering. So sufficient crampons, axes and glacier glasses having been begged, borrowed or hired they embarked on the pleasant 4 ½ hour stroll up to the Ecrins hut from where they planned to attack the Barre des Ecrins the next day. They were accompanied nearly all the way by Debbie and Catherine who were eventually turned back just short of the hut and had a slightly exciting walk back down the glacier in the gloaming. Sensibly they stopped at the Glacier Blanc hut for dinner before tackling the relatively good path back to the valley. Meanwhile back at the Ecrins hut eventually Patrick turned up just in time for him to stop his dinner being cleared away. A sprightly 3 AM start the next day had our intrepid half dozen suited and booted and wearily plodding up toward the North face of the Barre. The intention had been to climb the North face (PD) but this was in a difficult condition so they just ascended the Dome de Neige instead. It should be added that the weather was fantastic for Alpine climbing with bright sunny days and relatively cold nights.

Meanwhile Chuck and Sonia had spent a couple of productive days climbing and falling together.

Friday was to be the last night together for many so another barbecue was organised and efforts successfully made not to waste any of the surplus alcohol.

Saturday was packup day for many though Chuck and Wendy managed to knock off a 6 pitch route in 2 hours with a one hour walk off. Jim and Beatriz did the same route though Jim forgot his lunch and so was a little grumpy. Simon and Debbie went single pitch cragging under the Fissure whilst Sonia and Kate had made an early start up River Kwai. They were not leaving until Sunday which was fortunate as bit of a route faff and a stuck ab rope saw them take a full 12 hours on the route, 4 more than Simon and Nick had needed.

The departure crowd eventually gathered at Turin airport where Nick had been waiting for a lonely 7 hours (don’t ask) where they found their plane had been delayed. Further delays led to a very late arrival at Stansted and then to compound the horror of the journey Chuck’s car broke down on the North Circular. The only positive note about this dire trip was that Chuck’s car turned out not to be so terminally damaged as was first suspected so it lives another day.

All in all it was an excellent trip with a huge amount done that is not recounted here. One lesson to learn is that just about everyone had a harder time going down than going up so the confidence and to tackle such problems in a calm manner is essential for this sort of stuff.

Thanks to Chuck for organising the meet and the following attendees for making it such fun: Nick, Simon MC, Beatriz, Catherine O’C, Jim, John B, Chuck, Wendy, Sarah, Patrick, Debbie, Oscar, Sonia, AG, Rachel, Shane, Julie, Jiri, Tara & Kate.

Loads more pictures available here

Iceman