Barre des Ecrins, France

There was reportedly a good weather window coming for the next few days, and we were relatively fit now having spent several days in the mountains. The time had come to think about the major objective for this year, and we pulled out the plans for the Barre des Ecrins.

All the books describe driving up to the Pre de Madam Carle, and then heading up the side of the alley to the glacier Blanc.

Before we started off, we phoned the refuge des Ecrins to book in and were met with surprise that we would get there in one day - this should have been a warning.

We drove around to the the south side of Briancon and headed up the next valley West to Vallouise, and Ailefroide. Where to our complete surprise we found the road barred. The spring thaw had not been sufficient to stop the avalanches from cutting the road higher up. Unfortunately most of the road was clear, but we had many additional kilometres to do on foot with our skis on the back.




Parking by the barrier we loaded up and started along the tarmac. Walking up the road was a real slog, and as the day warmed up go very humid in the enclosed spaces with the valley sides and trees all around.

Reaching the Pre, brought some slight relief, we could get our skis on as the snow was still settled. Unfortunately the time taken to get here, had meant that it was sightly soft, and therefore hard going on the flat.

From the Pre, the path crossed in some indistinct way to the right hand side, and the west of the gorge coming down from the glacier Blanc.

It was with some relief when we started climbing, gradually at first then steeper and steeper as we wound up the slope moving from one snow patch to another.




After this steep section the path slackened, but still fairly intensive up to the col. It was at this point that we came to the realisation that all was not well... Chris was struggling, and decided that he would not be able to go any further, and I did not realise it, but I was getting extremely dehydrated .. the heat had paid a heavy price. Chris returned to the vehicles and would make his way home, whilst Derek, Bryon and I would continue onwards.


Continuing onward we came to the snout of the Glacier Blanc ... I was by now very light headed and  feeling exhausted, luckily Bryon picked up on what it was and made me drink the contents of my water bottle. This was just what I needed, and after 15 mins sitting down, I was ready to continue.





From here the route contoured round to the north side before cutting back to the Glacier Blanc hut. The day was moving along, and it was soon apparent that if we continued to the Ecrins hut we would not be in a fit state to continue to the Barre the next day, and our best opportunity was stop at the glacier Blanc hut and continue the next day.





So where the path split we turned right and went to the hut, but only after we had taken a good look at the route upwards for the next day.

 We were welcomed in the hut with that knowing smile from the guardian, silly people...

One other casualty of the really hot day was my feet...  for the first time in many years (and especially since I got my touring boots) were ripped to shreds and the inside of each ankle had massive blisters, red and raw.

The sunset provided a brilliant backdrop for the night looking across to Mont Pelvoux.