Perhaps begin with France 2023: part one: GR54 Bourg d'Oisans to Vallouise.Thurs 10th: [pix] don't sleep so well: the luxury of a large soft bed and sheets clearly disturbs my undermind. Up 7 b'fast 7:30 and linger revelling in free wifi catching up. It is jour du marché.
Today is day of rest, really. I feel a bit battered. Nose is almost burnt, as is chest (my yellow top must be wearing thin). Like an idiot I forgot I packed a parasol. Back was feeling compressed. Feet a bit battered too: trainers v comfy and all but don't provide much protection. Legs tired.
Note re food: day before I had small hut b'fast, then oatcakes and little cheese for the day. Y'day I had oatcake for b'fast and a few more during day, until evening meal. And, I wasn't famished. Indeed, hardly hungry at all. Otoh maybe my body now is catching up…
Slow morning. Stroll round marché secure in the knowledge that I'm not buying anything. To church and enjoy quiet and yet more pix of it. Supermarket: 1L mango juice and four little yoghurts. To room to wrangle internet and plot next few days. Oh, and there's a piano concert tonight in the church at 6.
Metta: Q: has anything of importance been added since B? Craving / restlessness: doubtful: a world of placid contented folk would be dull, static. Or is the idea there is an uprushing fountain of dev, from which fall off contented offshoots? "We need productive activity": all very odd here trying to reconcile to local culture. Laity-service-to-monks-express-devotion: this doesn't read well. Work: not want-to but have-to: well duh, clue's in the name. Sixth sense: drifted off metta? Need to discuss with M methinks. Morality: not-rules-but-pers-dev: no, morality is primarily rules. "Those who know" - v dubious: rule of man, not rule of law / morality. Not upset wise: recipe for stasis. Q: can metta be universally applicable? (cf monks / laity: clearly not all can be monks).
3: off for a stroll around "lower" Vallouise [GPS] just to put some pix on Strava. Cemetery has some grand old tombs and a weirdly south american feel. Shops. Dam - I don't think I've previously realised there is one.
I belatedly realise that these pix give a very poor idea of how lovely Vallouise is (see the end of yesterday for a nicer pic).
Huttopia is a large campsite as well as huts. Wx: hot, sultry, trying to rain, and does a bit.
6: concert: Theo Goucenneret: https://www.musiques-en-ecrins.com/les-concerts-2023/th%C3%A9o-fouchenneret/. V good. My evening meal: oreilles d'ane.
Fri 11th: [pix] off 8:35 having paid €300 (room+food x 2). Sun not yet up, that's for le Sarret. Up on road rather than the paths because I'm interested in what's there on the road, partly from a where-else-might-I-stay-in-future viewpoint. [GPS: Vallouise to Ailefroide]
Le Sarret: minimarché, camping, mtn shop, hotel le Glacier Blanc (where we're had coffee and ice cream; has a nice garden, and a cute sign). Nice. Rocher d'escalade. There's a sturdy old chapel, with a sturdy old CAF sign on it; Ref Lemercier is the old hut at Pelvoux. Ref Tucket is the old Ref just below the Ref Gl Blanc, now a "musee". Ref Cezanne appears to be nowadays unguarded but open when the-Resto-at-Pre-du-Mme-Carle, which is still in fact a hotel / refuge, isn't.
And that's it till Ailefroide 10:30 which has minimarché, climbing, cafe-resto and a sprawling campsite under pines. It is infested with boulderers. And, to be fair, "ropers".
What to do with my day? I'd initially planned an easy walk here and camp but… that seems too easy. There's a spring in my step and my pack is back to feeling light… so obvs I must grind myself down. Sele? Or Pelvoux?
It is lovely here, now. Temperature in shade just right, light through trees beautifully green. Quiet with occasional cars. Allongé x 2, chalet-hotel d'Ailefroide. Which is a much bigger building than it looks from the front.
Reading: memoirs of Sherman: becomes lawyer; licensed "on the ground of general intelligence".
Buy demi-baguette, crotin, 1L clemtine as lunch. V nice, v pure, why can't I get that from a resto? To "Ailechaude" nominally climbers cafe / Israeli just beyond bridge for… espresso and to sit out noon. I'm not v good at turning off my brain.
Just round the back down a little lane in shade of a house sit and watch climbing on the wall to R. Its big. And above that drifting in the breeze parapents. Shouting, repeated, from above for Ariel, s'il te plait.
Tempted by the clink of carabiners I go into the woods a little (see gps) and find the base of one climb and people higher to L. But its a vast area and wooded at the base. Also too hot to wander far. Where I sit I'm passed by a stream of climbers / boulderers. 2:50: almost everyone off the wall now.
To Engilberge. Did it rain last time we were here? Now, sun. And coffee.
4: off. Signs for huts just as path leaves camp site. Chamois. 5:25: Sele-Pelvoux junction. 6: base of headwall 2222 m. 6:30: hut 2512. Its kinda blowy, the sun is behind a cloud, the ground is rocky… lets sleep in. And they aren't busy. Though they are slightly insistent on the virtues of reserving. Young Spanish chap is going to sleep by old hut and do the Ailefroide tomorrow.
I don't recall the inside of this hut at all. When I came solo it was shut; when E and I "did" Boeufs Rouges we maybe walked up that day? Really?
Metta: "radiating your metta outward" sounds suspiciously like its a field; is there a tension between the old "voodoo" mysticism and what M would ack? (loc 1013). "Include everyone indeed all beings everywhere". Note: everything is meditation: no suggestion to practice by meeting people.
Ref: quite quiet: maybe 20 people here (sleeps 76). They aren't generous with their light. "French" toilets no shower. Feels a bit bleak or is that me? Dinner 3 x oatcakes and a marzipan bar (40g?) and some Beaufort. Chickens.
Sat 12th: [pix]: sleep well no snorrers and potentially giggling children don't. Sunny morning streams in. Ref faces E, sun glints on the river down below. B'fast: coffee steams in the sunlight. Two walkers come up before 8… and one leaves again as I'm heading off: 8. GPS: Ref Sele to old Ref to glacier snout and back.
View from path to old hut looking back to present ref. Sorry, I should have cleaned my lens.
View up to old hut. 8:20: old / winter hut 2710 says sign (old?) but 2633 says gps. Plaque. Boards outside to bivvy on.
Chamois. Path from hut: just down a little then follow cairns / path / water pipe then a few cables before climbing. 8:45 down in valley by desc path leading upvalley from old hut. Half hour upvalley 2527 there's a bivvy able area (on way back: also some closer hut). Grass, sand.
9:30: start back 2600. There's no path anymore the ground is chossy rubble and I'm now above the lowest glacial bits. Would be much better earlier in season when snow covered. Views up: waterfalls pouring off upper Sele glacier.
Traverse glacier snout (ice underfoot!) and bumble back on S bank. Slightly nicer ground - sandier - and the odd footprint. Halfway along realise: oh I'm going to have to cross the river… and it is rushy. Find somewhere when nearly at hut and boots get wet (precautions: both sticks out phone in w'proof backpack) but I don't get swept away.
Hut 10:30. Put boots and socks to dry and sit in sun on terasse overlooking valley up. V quiet. Realise can see Ref Pelvoux from here. Chicken; stroked.
12:20: boots nearly dry, Spaniard returns having climbed Ailefroide, and lunchtime visitors start arriving. Head down for Pelvoux junction. GPS: Ref Sele to Pelvoux to Ailefroide.
1:40: start up. Path steep but good. 3:05: Pelvoux.
Inside.
Some helicoptering as I climb, and when here some Secours folk and some vacant looking folk perhaps rescued.
Sit in salle with local pomme-framboise and rest. I slipped and fell on my bum earlier desc Sele; didn't notice in ascent but now my left leg isn't happy; a tiny bit like dead-legged. Lets hope it walks out. View back to Sele; more distant.
3:55: off. Leg… gradually gets happier. Lots of folk grinding up with ropes and rock shoes. View back to Sele headwall and hut. Chamois. Down to head of camping about 6:15. My but its vast. "Book" myself two nights - my plan is to whizz up to Pre, Gl Bl, Ref Ecrins tomorrow (leg permitting) and then I think I'm heading for Eychaudna. One emplaces n'importe ou. Have bought dinner, now in cafe (C-H d'A) awaiting biere. Aaahh that's good. I feel like I've been waiting for that.
Clouding over, which was welcome during asc / desc.
Put up tarp; that's taken from a slightly deceptive angle that makes it look completely alone; click onto the next for more realism. and down to main building for shower and battery recharge. Thunder! Rain! But not too much. Back to tent, eat yoghurts, melon, beignets de champsaur (chevre this time; epinards were better) etc.
Sun 13th: [pix]: GPS: To Pre, Ref Glacier Blanc, Ref des Ecrins; and back (30 km, +1600m). up 6:30 put tent in order off 6:50 up road. Pre-du-M-C 8:10. Bridge 9:15. Roche de Miranda de Regarde de la Pelvoux 9:40 and five mins regardin', and pondering the inevitable passage of time. Will we ever descend the Violettes? Ref 10. Feeling a bit tired, perhaps the sugar with the cafe will help. Pic: about halfway from Pre to Ref Gl Blanc, just coming to the bridge, Gl Blanc itself coming into view.
I realise that I could do the Gl Noire instead of Ecrins… which, oddly, makes me realise that I really do want to do Ecrins. Ref much as ever but central pillar has been painted blue.
10:50: on. Glacier, 2980, 12:20. 1: Ref des Ecrins. I went by the "rock" path obvs. Last bit on glacier fine: trainers grip rough wet and initially gritty ice fine. Last bit up to hut is as ever horrible.
Cafe, gateau. Rest. Quiet. One other bod, then two young F (Gl B was quite busy, loadsa families etc).
Look out at Barre: its looking quite crevassy. Indeed it is broken up even at the base of the hut: no more casual tramp up snow one picks through crevasses.
Talk to Guardienne: Dome de Neige is now AD: the Dome is largely ice, there's a rimaye, and lower down a crevasse has to be descended into and out of. The Barre above remains PD. Roche Faurio is still fine too. Off 2:15.
Ref Gl Bl 4:10. I got lost a couple of times on the way down and was saved by Strava, since I could see the up going trace. Finish Beaufort. Off 4:30. Bridge 5:10. Numerous pix of Gl Noir in lieu of a visit for another year.
6: Pre. Stop for biere. Faint tweaks from R calf. Off 6:20. Down 7:15, to Sherpa for misc but hope for resto dinner - pasta would be welcome. The C-H seems very busy. Hints of rain. Settle for fresh bread, le Rustique camembert, melon, yoghurt, juice. Some phone charging in hq.
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