Roc D’Enfer
One of the best ridge walks I’ve ever done, not quite as sharp as Crib Goch leading up to Snowdown in Wales but more exposed in parts and much higher altitude. The summit of the Roc D’Enfer stands at 2243m with great views into Switzerland and over to Les Dents Blanche and Mont Blanc. We did the loop from Graydon round to the col de Foron although in hindsight I would do it the other way round next time making some of the more exposed scrambles an ascent rather than an a slightly tricky descent.
It’s always hard to judge when a walk is an infamous as the Roc D’Enfer for claiming several lives over the past few years but the warning signs are well justified. Going well prepared with plenty of time, taking a map, making sure someone knows your route and the the weather forecast is nothing but clear skies with no wind is as much as you can do. The rest is walking confidently within you limits and not being afraid of turning back if you are either unsure of the route or not confident in your ability.
Having said that the reward was an exhilarating walk/scramble along one of the best ridge lines I’ve ever been too!
Via Ferratta in St Jean D’Aulps
The new routes are open in St Jean D’Aulps just 10 mins drive from the centre of Morzine. I’ve posted climbing pics on our blog before but this was the first outing for the new via routes.
There are two new routes, the Elephants Head and the Elephants Eye Graded French ED and D+
Details of both routes on on the Topo guide available from the tourist office in the village.
The walk in from the road in to Bas Thex is easy to miss with a tiny sign on the right of the road about 50m from the car park at the Abbey Cemetery. It’s about a 15min walk in through the woods and the two routes depart from the same spot.
There are two points apart from the start and finish where you can swap between the two routes if one is proving too hard or too easy.
There not the longest of routes but combined with the amount of climbing available on the face lower down the rock it’s definitely worth checking out.
Once we’ve conquered the harder Elephants eye I’ll get some more pictures up, hopefully with the sun shinning as well!
Topo guides for the sport climbing are available from the Tabac in the village opposite Bar Le National
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Via Ferrata in Thones
Well the snow’s all gone and the lifts aren’t quite open yet for biking so in between some cross country biking (although I did make it to the top of the Pleney downhill yesterday for a blast down, rough as old boots) and a bit of road biking we thought we’ve been exploring some of the via ferrata in the Haute Savoie. With snow still lingering around at 1800m we headed down to Thones, near Annency as the route is challenging but not at thesame altitude as Avoriaz for example which still has patches of snow kicking around.
Parked up at the bottom, you can see the entire route from the hotel car park at the bottom. Total Route time 3hrs15
The walk in to the bottom of the climb, it’s only about 10mins up a hairpin track and gets the blood goin before you come to the start of the route.
Jamie reflecting on having bought a helmet with ‘CAMP’ written across the front.
It’s not the easiest thing to get the camera out en route, so we’ve already made it over a 15ft wire bridge (literally one wire to walk on one wire to hold on too at shoulder height across a 60m drop!)
A rare spot with everyone comfortable enough to get a picture, pretty much the whole route is this shear or overhanging.
A tricky little traversing section with not much in the way of footholds.
What can I say……
Kelvin on the overhanging ladder at the end of the route, looks out to a 250m drop or the other side of the valley depending on whether you look down or not!
Jamie tackling the overhang section that runs parallel to the ladder, not particularly technical but really, really tiring especially as it’s right at the end of the climb. As usual the pictures don’t quite show how much of a prolonged overhang it was.
Me just coming into the steep part of the overhang, with a 250m drop straight down, exposed doesn’t quite do it justice.
I did have to restrain myself when Robin said smile, not exactly the emotion I was going through!!
Robin topping out.
A well earned rest at the top.
View from the car park, if you look carefully at the top you can just see the almost vertical line of the final ladder.
All topped of with a night in the campsite on the lake.
All in all an awesome day out and the most exposed mountaineering I’ve ever done, even if it is reasonably well protected climbing the overhang is still like tackling a lead climb with the potential of a x 3-5 fall. Can’t wait for the next one, probably Avoriaz when the snow melts.
Late summer biking…
Still photos by Jacquie Cutler www.jcutlerphotography.co.uk
With the lifts over in Les Gets and Morzine shut it means all the trails are really quiet, so I can stand at the top of the Gap jump at the top of the Nauchetts lift for as long as I want before deciding if it’s too big or not! Even with the Morzine lifts shut there is a huge amount of riding still to be had with the Champery cable car open until the middle of October!!
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Rochers De La Chaux
10 Mins outside of Morzine is the Rochers De La Chaux in Bas Thex. We’ve not had a chnace to climb there yet with the summer lifts being open it’s all been biking and walking so far so we headed up to reccy the crag for the inter season when the lifts are shut.
The ‘Elephant’s Nose’ as it’s know locally, the site of the Rochers De La Chaux
Routes through the trees, difficult to see the bolts on these photos but all the routes are incredibly well protected with bolts every 3-4m. Our adventure weeks next summer will definately be including several days climbing here. There are over 90 routes, most of them grade 4-5 with multi-pitch routes and some via-feratta. This makes it well within any intermediate climber to have an excellent 3-4 days climbing on a wide variety of routes.
All the routes are clearly marked and really well protected. It’s hard to get over just how many different routes there are.
Scoping out the start of the 90m multi pitch route
Rafting on the Dranse
The sun’s been out for a while and it’s been getting up to 30 odd degrees in the shade! Really hard to keep beer cold but ideal weather to get wet and enjoy the melted snow.
We drove out to AN Rafting’s base just outside of Morzine looking at the river running alongside the road thinking it looked way to rough and the rafting must be downstream only to arrive and find that, that was the exact bit of river we were heading for…..and that the previous nights summer storm had swollen the river from 15 cubic meters a second to 50! Time to dig out the armbands and possibly rubber duck then!
Our instructor/guide/river guru introduced himself as Stephan but said we were welcome to call him ‘elp, funny boy. He knew his stuff and had us hurtling through all kinds of rapids and waves and drops forwards backwards sideways whilst insisting that the most important thing to do if the raft capsized was to keep smiling.
Is it a bird, is it a plane…………..
Soon to be rafting, sans raft!
Grrr, serious rafting face, must, paddle.
Spot who’s in control of who gets wet then.
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