Ah, Ceillac - the shortest walk-ins we've seen, and some reliable ice too! So once again we managed to knock off two routes in a day ...
The first was Formes du Chaos, where we were followed by a French father / son team (Son doing all the leading; Dad enjoying a day out for his birthday) who lamented the shape of the ice fall this year: it was, like everything else in the Alps, a little on the thin side.
But there was enough good ice to climb, or the gorge was narrow enough
to bridge between the rock and ice (funky moves required - particularly
to avoid the bloody streak a previous party had left behind ...!)
As the day was still young, we headed across to the one-pitch wonder of Sombre Heroes (or as we keep calling it, Sober Heroes). We soloed up the first easy bit before Mark headed up the amazing pillar ...
The first was Formes du Chaos, where we were followed by a French father / son team (Son doing all the leading; Dad enjoying a day out for his birthday) who lamented the shape of the ice fall this year: it was, like everything else in the Alps, a little on the thin side.
 |
| Apparently there isn't usually this gaping hole ... |
But thankfully the very top pitch was a bit more solid, giving Jen a chance to jump on lead.
As the day was still young, we headed across to the one-pitch wonder of Sombre Heroes (or as we keep calling it, Sober Heroes). We soloed up the first easy bit before Mark headed up the amazing pillar ...
 |
| An awesome pitch |
