Pic de Jallouvre

On Thursday Pawel mentioned that while he was heading to Poland for the weekend Dorota was looking for somebody to go climbing with. I got in touch with her, and we batted the ideas for a number of different multi-pitches to climb around. Since it would be the first time we would climb a multi-pitch together we decided to go for something more cautious and start with the Courte Paille on the Aix de Allyards (above image taken from the website). There are five other multi-pitches to climb in the area as well, so we had options in case we were looking to climb some more. We both had plans to go out with some friends on Friday night, so our climbing enthusiasm was thus far undetermined. There was a chance of a few other friends joining us as well.

Dorota seemed to have the longer night out, she messaged me when I had already turned in that we would be joined by the two Kasias who were spending the day at the cave overt and coming to join us for a BBQ in the evening. So, on Saturday morning I quickly gathered my camping gear and went off to meet Dorota at the CERN reception. From there we headed to the Col de la Columbiere in the pre-Alps. On the drive both of us noted that we had forgotten our cameras, so this time my pictures come from my phone. The parking lot for the climbing area was close-by. We arrived around 10:30 packed our climbing gear and headed for the wall. There we spend a little time walking about orienting ourselves and soon found our climb. I lead the first pitch, Dorota the second and so on. It was an extremely pleasant climb, especially once we got to a section that involved cannelures: limestone that had been scraped down by glacial movement and then worked by running water. Very nice! There was a nice photo opp half way through the climb :)

We finished the climb and found ourselves back at the car around 3pm for some late lunch. Thanks to Dorota for sharing her delicious cucumber+hummus sammich. We also had to convince the Kasias to join us at the Picde Jallouvre since they wanted to meet us in Charmonix: and this place just had the nicer climbing wall in this case. After some lunch and phone conversations we resolved to go for a second climb until our company would arrive for the BBQ. This time we climbed Alley-z Mme Mummury, another beautiful climb. I think Dorota and I are well matched in climbing skill so the challenge level was just right plus we moved at a good pace. While rappelling down we saw a group gather in the alpine valley below and start a campfire. There were too many to be the three that would join us but the campfire looked inviting.

The others arrived just before we made it back to the cars with provisions for the BBQ. We went ahead and started setting up our tents, at which point some of the campfire group came over and invited us to their fire: they were a group of teenagers from Annemasse. They were visiting the small village nearby with their parents and were enjoying the evening outside. We made friends over the fire them practicing the English and German they were learning in school, us working our French (I am by far the worst French speaker in the group). A great evening by the fire, and a good night bivouacking in the alpine.

The next day we woke up to a lazy breakfast, though we had run out of sufficient bread and yogurt, so I ran off to find a bakery and supermarket in the nearby town. Unfortunately both bakeries and the supermarket in the first village were closed so I moved two the next town. Though lacking breakfast it was a lovely drive visiting the picturesque French villages.

After breakfast we gathered our climbing gear and headed to the wall. This time we chose a climb Manque un Metre the tough points of which were very reachy, so we thought I stood a chance. Again a great climb, and I started getting comfortable sport leading 6a's (low 5.10's in North America) and top belaying two climbers. With the lazy morning and three of us climbing together it was late in the afternoon by the time we finished. We decided to head home after the one climb. On the way we stopped by a small restaurant called Le Peille in Saint-Jean-de-Sixt. It being off season we didn't need any reservations. Not really being hungry we all decided to have desert. It was delicious, the place would be a great restaurant for some traditional French cuisine to visit in the future.

Thank you to all who were out for an amazing weekend of climbing, camping, and just hanging out!