advice from anyone in Ailfroide last year re pelvoux

[Howard]

I last did the traverse of the Pelvoux some years back and remember it
needed a couple of shortish abseils off the glacier. Now I hear that the
glacier has shrunk so much there are three abseils, including one of
50m! I want to do it again this year with my daughter but want to take
the right gear -which sounds like a couple of 60m ropes. Has anyone any
more up to date info on this route or know where I could look?
Howard

[John Broadwell]

Howard,

I climbed the Pelvoux via the Mettrier Couloir many years ago but cannot
remember any problems with glaciers ;-) we came back down to the Pelvoux hut
via the voie normale which is/was an easy snow plod.

John Brailsford's 2002 Alpine Club guide "Ecrins Massif" does not seem to
provide any information on what you are looking for other than a fairly
serious descent via the Violettes Glacier to complete the full traverse. Is
that the description you are looking for?

If all else fails, then nearer the time perhaps a call through to the
Bureaux des Guides in La Berarde, La Grave or Ailefroide would prove useful.

In any event, 60m ropes will build in an extra safety dimension albeit with
the added weight. That's the nub of alpinism of course, as you will know,
the eternal trade off between which equipment, the weight of that equipment
and your overall speed.

John

Post by Howard
I last did the traverse of the Pelvoux some years back and remember it
needed a couple of shortish abseils off the glacier. Now I hear that the
glacier has shrunk so much there are three abseils, including one of 50m! I
want to do it again this year with my daughter but want to take the right
gear -which sounds like a couple of 60m ropes. Has anyone any more up to
date info on this route or know where I could look?
Howard

[Howard]

Thank you John.
Yes it was the full traverse over the violettes that I was thinking
about, up the coolidge couloir and down the violettes . That's what I
did before. I remember having to cross the crevasse field from left to
right near its end and then abseil down to a snow slope. Its apparently
this traverse that is impassable now, requiring a longer abseil
somewhere else but I don't know where.

Its a bit annoying as I was in Ailefroide on my own last year and spent
a lazy day going up the pelvoux traverse descent route almost as far as
the abseil point but of course was unable to see the glacier conditions
above it.

Maybe its a sign of age that I remember the traverse as being just
exciting and the fact that I now intend doing it with my daughter a sign
of how long ago it really was!

We'll be staying in Ailfroide again this year but the contacts I've had
with guides so far indicates they give nothing a way without money being
exchanged. I think I'll take two ropes just in case.

(thanks about the book. I have the 87 version and have just ordered the
2002 one. looks like it was a wise decision)
Cheers
Howard

Post by John Broadwell
Howard,
I climbed the Pelvoux via the Mettrier Couloir many years ago but cannot
remember any problems with glaciers ;-) we came back down to the Pelvoux hut
via the voie normale which is/was an easy snow plod.
John Brailsford's 2002 Alpine Club guide "Ecrins Massif" does not seem to
provide any information on what you are looking for other than a fairly
serious descent via the Violettes Glacier to complete the full traverse. Is
that the description you are looking for?
If all else fails, then nearer the time perhaps a call through to the
Bureaux des Guides in La Berarde, La Grave or Ailefroide would prove useful.
In any event, 60m ropes will build in an extra safety dimension albeit with
the added weight. That's the nub of alpinism of course, as you will know,
the eternal trade off between which equipment, the weight of that equipment
and your overall speed.
John

Post by Howard
I last did the traverse of the Pelvoux some years back and remember it
needed a couple of shortish abseils off the glacier. Now I hear that the
glacier has shrunk so much there are three abseils, including one of 50m! I
want to do it again this year with my daughter but want to take the right
gear -which sounds like a couple of 60m ropes. Has anyone any more up to
date info on this route or know where I could look?
Howard

[Tony P]

Post by Howard
I last did the traverse of the Pelvoux some years back and remember it
needed a couple of shortish abseils off the glacier. Now I hear that the
glacier has shrunk so much there are three abseils, including one of 50m! I
want to do it again this year with my daughter but want to take the right
gear -which sounds like a couple of 60m ropes. Has anyone any more up to
date info on this route or know where I could look?
Howard

[Tony P]

Try here;
http://www.summitpost.org/route/204032/pelvoux-traverse-traversee-du-pelvoux.html

Post by Howard
I last did the traverse of the Pelvoux some years back and remember it
needed a couple of shortish abseils off the glacier. Now I hear that the
glacier has shrunk so much there are three abseils, including one of 50m! I
want to do it again this year with my daughter but want to take the right
gear -which sounds like a couple of 60m ropes. Has anyone any more up to
date info on this route or know where I could look?
Howard

[Martin Carpenter]

Post by Tony P
Try here;
http://www.summitpost.org/route/204032/pelvoux-traverse-traversee-du-pelvoux.html

Or here:

http://alpinisme.camptocamp.com/route337.html

if your Franglais is up to the mark.

The descent does sound somewhat fiendish. The remarks in the last recorded
trip: "Descent just as interesting as the climb. A beautiful route with a
descent that isn't all that obvious".

Other remarks from 2006:
Take a helmet, watch out for objective dangers
Be careful of getting the rope stuck in the rocky bars on the descent abs
Descent not difficult but "engaging"; hard on the knees; potentially lethal

Nobody writes about receeding glaciers, 50m rope recommended in this topo.

[Howard]

Post by Martin Carpenter

Post by Tony P
Try here;
http://www.summitpost.org/route/204032/pelvoux-traverse-traversee-du-pelvoux.html

http://alpinisme.camptocamp.com/route337.html
if your Franglais is up to the mark.
The descent does sound somewhat fiendish. The remarks in the last recorded
trip: "Descent just as interesting as the climb. A beautiful route with a
descent that isn't all that obvious".
Take a helmet, watch out for objective dangers
Be careful of getting the rope stuck in the rocky bars on the descent abs
Descent not difficult but "engaging"; hard on the knees; potentially lethal
Nobody writes about receeding glaciers, 50m rope recommended in this topo.

Thank you, both very useful links, looks like it is a bit different now
but I do remember the descent as being just as 'engaging' as the climb -
if you count 20m seracs and snow covered crevasses as engaging!
Howard

[Simon Caldwell]

Post by Howard
I last did the traverse of the Pelvoux some years back and remember it
needed a couple of shortish abseils off the glacier. Now I hear that the
glacier has shrunk so much there are three abseils, including one of
50m! I want to do it again this year with my daughter but want to take
the right gear -which sounds like a couple of 60m ropes. Has anyone any
more up to date info on this route or know where I could look?
Howard

We did it last year, late in the season (last week of August), and
there were three or four *sets* of abseils (ie a multiple ab, then
some more walking, then a multiple ab, etc. I think we abseiled 8 or
9 times in all. Some of these were down-climbable by the
confident/brave. This all took a *long* time, as there were 5 of us
with one 50m rope!

There was also a tricky reascent, after crossing the glacier
(Violettes?), very loose and unprotected. I'd guess it would be
easier (ie with some snow/ice on it) earlier in the season.

Don't let this put you off though, it's still a great expedition, and
one of the highlights of my (brief) Alpine career. It's just a bit
more of an undertaking than perhaps it used to be (the old West Col
guide suggests taking a short length of rope as you may need to do a
single ab!)

Simon