Seb and I headed up today to have a go at this couloir. It was really cold. really really cold. That was the overriding theme of the day, the cold. We did good speed on the skin up, and in the sun it was OK, but once we got in the shade, no matter how fast you went you didnt stay warm without lots of layers.
We were not sure whether to do the central couloir or the north couloir. On the approach the north one looked good, and as it is the classic line we decided to go for that one first.
We managed to skin up to the neck of the couloir. With me breaking trail all the way, mainly because we needed to stay spread out to avoid avy risk. Then we sorted our gear out for the climb and Seb took over the lead for the best part of the boot pack. It was freezing. I dont think I have ever been so cold in the French Alps. My toes lost feeling.
When we got to the top there was thankfully a little patch of sunshine to warm us up a bit. The views were stunning, it is a really alpine setting with jagged peaks all around. I cant beleive I didnt get any photos of the views. There was a couloir below us dropping south that looked amazing (mostly because it was drenched in sun). It would have been a long hitch back from the upper Ubaye to get the car though.
We didnt hang around for long before heading down. Seb was on his first 5.2 so was a bit nervous but once he got into the couloir and did some turns he was fine.
The snow was good at the top, there was a hard crust with some soft snow on top of it. Further down the crust became breakable, and it wasnt very pleasant. Then it became hard again before turning into amazing powder.
All in all a great day out in the mountains and good to finally get this couloir done.
Here is a map of the route
download it to view in Google Earth
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