Finally a good weather weekend after a long streak. We have a 6am Lyon departure, I begin to figure out how "doing" mountains will be like from here, it will work. The plan is to do Dibona on Saturday, and something else on Sunday if the weather is good.
Dibona (3131m) is a very aesthetic mountain, it looks like a spire from the front, but it is really a fin. On the face there are a bunch of nice hard climbs, but here we are going for the fun climbs, rather than piss-my-pants climbs (Robert will be glad to hear :). The approach is really nice as it goes up a valley (a little like Santa Cruz trek) and then it unveils the mountain and the refuge that is just under it (you can almost belay some climbs from the refuge!). Initially we were going to do the normal route, but opt to do the "voie de nain" (dwarf route). This is a nice route, as you have company at every belay station (see pictures), unless of course, say you get off-route, but I won't point the fingers at anyone. Michel is a very nice guy. We divide up into two rope teams with Michel and I leading each one. This will be Alvine's first multi-pitch "climb". The setting is magnificent and the route is well equipped.
Sunday it seems that the weather will hold in the morning. The fact that lots of people arrive saturday evening at the refuge reinforces this notion. We opt to do Soreiller Occidental. Alvine also expresses her wish to do "courses de roché pure" rather than "l'escalade" (climbing). This means that she prefers simul-climbing rather than pitching it out (she has things to do, people to meet, places to go... you know... these jet-set women). So we'll simul-climb the arête which is very nice. In order not to forget the beautiful Canadian Rockies, we are treated to some snow of the descent. And to show our young lasses the 'perils' of rappelling, the rope gets well stuck on the descent (which yours truly rope gun quickly handles).
Photos: H=Hector, A=Alvine, soon M=Michel
Statistics:
- 9/24 Trailhead-Refuge-Dibona-Refuge: +1615m -395m 9h30
- 9/25 Refuge-Soreiller-Refuge-Trailhead: +620m -1705m 8h40
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