Pic Coolidge, Oct 24, 2004
Participants  Hector, Yannick and Sandrine

Ahh, let the alpinism begin...Not much happens betweens seasons, but I
was ichy to get out, and considering we are in a school vacation, I
just had to. After talking to people, we decided to go to Pic Coolidge
due to its easy access and no glacier travel. Yannick recruits
Sandrine to come along, it will also be her first alpine experience
(tan-tan-tan). 

We stay in a refuge. Ok so let's get somethings clear
for those foreigners of you (and I). There are refuges in almost every
valley. They have a winter section. They have blankets and pads, so
bringing a sleeping bag is totally optional. You just have to bring a
stove and food, and some of them actually have stoves... so in the end
you can travel very light. 

We arrive at the parking lot at 4pm. We bump into a friend of
Sandrine. The hike up to the refuge is uneventful. At the refuge we
bump into 2 other parties, which guess what ? were going to do the
same route as us! fortunately this is a not a problem, since the route
is plenty of big, and we have plenty of time. Now the first funny
part: I leave the food management to Yannick. He shows me a little bag
of pasta (say 250g) for 3 people. I look at him, you are joking right?
where is the pasta... he says that is all he brought for dinners!! ok
these people take too seriously the travelling light...they also want
you to be light for the return hike!! really light!!... we add another
pasta that someone had generously left at the hut, so we are ok. They
still don't know here that I eat like two and sometimes three
people. Go to bed ridiculosly early as everyone is tucked in at 10pm.

Get up at 5h20 and out by 6h20. Luckily I had also brought good all
american mountaineering food: The Oatmeal. We reach the Col at
10am. Yannick and I stop regularly to take pictures... Sandrine wants
to get moving... you know these people that don't know artists!!. We
cross some people who are already on their way down, they were pressed
(in a hurry), we were not. We rope up for the rest of the climb as we
have to go through some delicate rock sections. Nothing too bad, but
you don't want to fall. We finally reach the anti-cime, like the mini
summit before the real summit. Then we send a small scouting-party of
one to tap the summit for the group and start heading down. We mostly
follow the large tracks we left in the way up, except for the
variations chosen by Yannick and Sandrine, and hence you will see
pictures of us going uphill even when we are descending :)...We stay
another night at the refuge to rest and we enjoy the company of a
photographer who was staying there also. I look forward to these
refuge business...