Ecrins 2020: Tuesday and Wednesday: mostly rest

[Notes : Arrival : Ref des Bans : Lac d'Eychauda / Pic du Rif : Rest : Ref Gl Blanc; Montagne des Agneaux : Pic du Gl d'Arsine to Ref des Ecrins : Pt Louise]

Tuesday: Up a little later than normal. Sit outside with muesli and a succession of coffees. It's a bit windy: I have to stop the parasol from blowing away. We're all in need of rest, so do nothing all day except I go down to town for bread; and mid-pm I make my long-promised trip up to Puy St Vincent to see if it would be a suitable place to stay in future years. In short, no. In long: there is stuff up there, but quite thin; we'd have found ourselves coming down to Vallouise a lot, and it is too far to walk quotidien. The church you see from Vallouise is no longer a church (also). Local map. View up to PSV from our terrace.

But you do get a decent view down to Vallouise and across. There's a "table d'orientation" type thing, from which I think I deduce that the skyline on the L is les Agneaux.

Soir: eat in: bread, cheese, pate, fougasse-a-chevre. Here's Vallouise-in-general, and below is zoomed to Our House.

The four 2-storey appts in the center; we're the lower-left-front one.

Wednesday: another mostly rest day, though we did attempt to climb in the afternoon. Up 7:30, sneak through l'room to avoid waking D, take muesli and juice outside. the sky is pure blue, the air is chill - the sun not yet over The Hill - I have my fleece on. Lovely. Browse the wub - SpaceX SN5 first hop - and end up on Citizens United. Popper, ch 6 and start ch 7, on how the fundamental Q is not "who should rule" but rather how to limit power. Coffee; some of y'day's baguette de tradition. D up; then E; she comes out to read P and we discuss her disagreement with my view that P's assertion of a racial aspect to Pl's classes is right. 11: E to town for bread; I wash up.

pm: to Pas du Loup for a nice easy 6 pitch 4c route at Bouchier. There's a cafe / gite / refuge and we play a few hands while waiting for the sun to go round. It was slow and dusty and slightly iffy driving up once off the main road. We watch a party on some-other-route. We're not quite sure where ours is; doubtless it will become clear as we get closer.

But, it doesn't. After heading up the right path all becomes doubtful, and we end up scrambling around on scree and boulders, and too close to see where we are, and nothing matches and there are no bolts. We could perhaps have been bold and just climbed <anything> since it seems quite climbable, but the children resisted my blandishments and perhaps that would better be done earlier in the day. Eventually, give up and go down and take the path round to the top, which is a pleasant path. We poke around, find some bolts and some markers ("R" for relais, perhaps?).

When driving out, stop and look, and finally have enough perspective: those other people were on our climb; ah well. Compare to the closer view.

Dinner: Argentiere-la-Besse, with cats.